DISEMBOWELMENT Discography (Relapse) 3cd 23.00
Just the sight of that immediately recognizable underlined, lower case 'd' logo sends shivers up our spine. Some of you already know exactly what we're talking about, and just reading this far has probably got you all in a tizzy as well. For those of you who are new to the lower case 'd', prepare yourself for diSEMBOWELMENT!! Even the name, replete with mandatory case change, conjures up all sorts of bleak lifeforce snuffing, soul crushing sensations, at least for fans of mysterious otherworldly doom and bizarre slow motion grind!!
diSEMBOWELMENT were but a brief flash in the underground doom metal scene, existing for a scant three years in the early nineties, but in that time, they recorded one of the all time classic HEAVY records ever, Transcendence Into The Peripheral. A mind blowing record that somehow melded extreme brutality with delicate beauty, a record that totally changed the way some of us listened to heavy music. Referring to the music of diSEMBOWELMENT as doom might give folks the wrong impression. This is not regular old doom like Black Sabbath or My Dying Bride, it's not even funereal doom like Skepticism or Esoteric, although it definitely spends most of its time a lot closer to the slow motion sludge end of the spectrum. diSEMBOWELMENT most definitely inhabit their own unique sonic space. It's slow, sure, but not always, bursts of pounding blast beats will erupt from a bleak tranquil soundscape, gutteral inhuman grunts, machine like percussion, buzzing riffs, all intertwined into a blazing near-death metal onslaught, but it's not long before big reverb drenched guitar melodies begin to fall like some sort of black rain, the metallic pummel sort of stumbling to a seasick lumber, turning the whole thing into a creepy crawl, lurching, plodding, downtuned guitars and spare, simple rhythms, a crushing slow motion dirge, with haunting atonal clean guitar parts and moaning melodies. And even during these vast expanses of atmospheric tranquility, you can never rule out sudden blast beat, or a throat shredding vocal part, or a sudden crushing riff. The magic of diSEMBOWELMENT though is that somehow the metallic crush and the melancholic ambience are perfectly balanced. The whole thing is a dark and depressive, minor key and mournful masterpiece. But it's all so fucking heavy! Even the not-so-heavy parts manage to sound completely massive and totally crushing! So intense and emotional and just absolutely beautiful. Yep, beautiful. Lovely even. Like few records we can remember, and certainly one of the only records this heavy and brutal that manages to be absolutely beautiful. Sonically it's a bit like Napalm Death's Scum, and Carcass's Reek of Putrifaction, that classic Earache sound, a bit lo-fi, lots of reverb, big drums, buzzing guitars, all boiled down into a viscous blackened sludge, sprinkled throughout with brief melodic flares and occasional glistening guitars, like rays of sunlight just barely penetrating the suffocating atmosphere of thick low hanging riffs and bleak, brutal ambience.
Disc one contains all of Transcendence Into the Peripheral, and hell, we would have been happy with just that, a long overdue reissue of one of our all time favorite discs. But disc two contains the quite rare Dusk ep, as well as a rare compilation track and the five track Mourning September demo, all of it suitably genius! And, for a very limited time, we have managed to get a hold of the "mailorder only" version of this diSEMBOWELMENT reissue (limited to 1000 copies worldwide) that comes with a whole extra, third, disc! Disc three contains an unreleased version of "The Spirit Of The Tall Hills" (from Transcendence Into the Peripheral), as well as rehearsal versions of The Spirit Of The Tall Hills and Your Prophetic Throne Of Ivory (also from Transcendence Into the Peripheral). These versions are a lot weirder than the album versions, faster, with way more deranged and damaged vocals! Also includes a Necrovore (who we'd never heard of) cover, a murky, fuzzy, droned-out thrash workout! Wow.
Obviously totally and completely essential. Like we mentioned before, the three disc version is super limited so we're not sure how long we'll have those. Packaged in an oversized 3cd jewel case, with a booklet of photos and liner notes, including lyrics and a history of the band from drummer Paul Mazziotta. When the 3cd version is gone we will have the 2cd version, which is cheaper and comes packaged in an embossed double digipak.
MPEG Stream: "The Tree Of Life And Death"
MPEG Stream: "Your Prophetic Throne Of Ivory"
MPEG Stream: "Cerulian Transience Of All My Imagined Shores"

PSYCHIC PARAMOUNT, THE Gamelan Into The Mink Supernatural (No Quarter) cd 14.98
Over the years, there have been plenty of records that have become AQ hallmarks, the Conet Project, a quadruple disc of short wave spy transmissions, The Ghost Orchid, EVP recordings of the voices of long lost loved ones as intercepted via radio waves, the Thai Elephant Orchstra, a real live elephant gamelan, and of course Laddio Bolocko, a rock group that made the most beautiful white hot, black hole noise we had ever heard, a seriously jaw dropping blast of superdistorted, ultra complex, psychedelic prog rock freak out. When LB disbanded, half the band went on to form Electric Turn To Me, a curious neo-cabaret act complete with icy campy female vocals and a sort of new wave Krautrock sound. Definitely interesting but not at all what we were hoping for from a post LB outfit. So along comes The Psychic Paramount, featuring the -other- half of Laddio Bolocko, guitarist and bassist Drew St. Ivany and Ben Armstrong, joined by the drummer from Sabers, and it is EVERYTHING we could have hoped for and more. It's like they took Laddio Bolocko and just smashed it to bits, reassembling all the parts into a gorgeously Frankesteinian blown out, fuzzed out psych rock, bizarre and beautiful, chaotic and always on the verge of falling apart. The record starts off with almost three minutes of dreamy, noisy, backwards psychedelic bliss out, equal parts My Bloody Valentine and Teenage Filmstars, keening hyperdistorted guitars, dreamy sunsoaked melodies, that awesome percussive fthhhhp sound of backwards drumming, all in supercharged splattery Technicolor swirl. The rest of the record is some sort of outerspace Krautrock, where the order of the day is still hypnotic and motorik, but this is not Neu! or Faust, not unless you took those guys, lit them on fire and launched them into space! Guitars careen and wail and keen and shriek, slipping fluidly from gorgeous melodic runs to full on fiery freakouts, all over a thick snarled bed of throbbing serpentine bass and ultra distorted drums (recorded so hot that every hit sends the needle even MORE into the red). This is like an indie rock Last Exit, or a more freaked out metallic This Heat. It's not just noise and pummel though, these are killer songs, the guitar parts especially, not only are they so complex and confusional they make you think this band must have at least three guitarists to whip up this sort of squall, but they are totally hook laden, which they sort of have to be as The Psychic Paramount are all instrumental. You'll totally find yourself anticipating certain riffs and licks, like you would your favorite line in a normal song. This record effortlessly steps all over pretty much every record in its path, it's not metal but manages to be way heavier than half the metal we hear, it's not really prog, but it's so much more complex and, well, progressive than nearly ANYTHING we've heard, and on top of everything, it's totally catchy, and noisy, and weird. It's really weird. Lots of that is just the sound of the record. In fact the recording is as important as the drums or the guitar or the bass. Ultra blown out, drenched in organic fuzz and room noise, super hot and in your face, with occasional tape drop outs and natural reverb and recording level abuse that adds a whole 'nother layer to the already dense sounds herein. The record finishes off with a completely confounding, but totally killer one two punch. "X-Visitations" is a ten minute free noise dirge, equal parts, SUNNO)))-like rumble and Sunroof!-like shimmer, that just sort of slithers and vibrates. The final track, "Gamelan Into The Mink Supernatural", starts off as a jazzy shuffle, building slowly in intensity and distortion, until it's a roiling relentlessly propulsive pummel, before it just cuts out suddenly, only to burst back into motion after an entire minute of silence! So awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Megatherion"
MPEG Stream: "Para5"
MPEG Stream: "Echoh Air"

----*
----* Highlights :
----*

AAVIKKO Back From The Futur (Muysic For Peoples) cd 14.98
Wow! A new Aavikko full length! This just might be the year of the Aavikko. When we first slapped this aluminum disc on our system we must admit we were a little taken aback: Hi-Fi Aavikko? Could it be? For so long these Casio-crazy Finns have championed the most primitive of production aesthetics with a sound only once removed from a ring tone. But here they were in crystal clarity and using the entire spectrum of the audible sound range. Did they get a sponsorship with some big keyboard company? Sources close to Aavikko are keeping tight-lipped about the group's new cache of keyboard equipment. Okay, let's put this in perspective before we go any further: a "hi-fi" Aavikko is still "lo-fi" by most standards, so don't expect any enormous shifts in the Aavikko sound. Bigger than their production changes is perhaps their new-found love of exotica and classic space-age bachelor pad music as a launching pad for their new compositions. Andee pointed out that a lot of the tunes on Back From The Futur sound like a lo-fi Tipsy. Their retro-futurist vision also smacks mightily of Kraftwerk (vocoder makes its way into a couple songs as well), Gershon Kingsley with bubbling and arpeggiating synth lines, catchy melodies and upbeat tempos, and maybe even the soundtracks for Roger Corman sci-fi flicks. We love it!
MPEG Stream: "Una Lira Soluziona"
MPEG Stream: "Erotica"

BARONESS Second (Hyperrealist) cd 9.98
When it rains it definitely pours -- as long as we're talking about this new breed of metallic post rock we've been digging. We think to ourselves, "Man, we can't get enough of this stuff" (um, because we always refer to ourselves as 'man', when we're thinking) and then whaddaya know? A new ep from the mighty Baroness, whose first ep we raved about not too long ago (what is it with this band and eps?) describing it as Electric Wizard meets the Fucking Champs metal stoner sludge crush. Which is still pretty accurate, but now that we've gotten more familiar with this post rock / sludge metal stuff, I think maybe we'd describe it more as Isis / Pelican majestic sludge metal meets Rodan / June Of 44 style moody post rock. However Baroness lean way toward the metal side of things. Plus, their songs are really weird, strange meters, complex arrangements, lots of slippery guitar harmonies, weird psychedelic wah guitar, spacey electronic burbling, some stretched out slow motion sludge, some intricate riffing and some of the most insane drumming we've ever heard. Not sure if we could handle another ep from these guys (okay, we probably could) but this will tide us over until the FULL LENGTH we're all dying for! C'mon guys!
And like their debut ep, this boasts some killer cover art, kinda like Pushead doing '60s Fillmore poster art.
MPEG Stream: "Red Sky "
MPEG Stream: "Son Of Sun"

BRIGMAN, GEORGE Jungle Rot ( Bona Fide) cd 16.98
We listed the vinyl reissue last time, now we're blessed with a deluxe cd reish of this rare-ass 1975 private press LP from Baltimore's George Brigman, digitally remastered from the original 30 year old tapes, complete with three bonus tracks! It's something that anyone who digs, say, Michael Yonkers should perk up their ears at. It's that sort of outsider psych obscurity. Guitarist/vocalist George Brigman, a teenager at the time we're pretty sure, was definitely into such underground (back then) influences as The Stooges and the Velvet Underground. This record consists of fierce, fuzz-fueled punk rockers, lo-fi acid blues, and VU-inspired melancholia -- a downer vibe typified by such songs as "It's Misery", "Worrying", and "I'm Married Too". He's got worlds of woe. There's more of the latter so don't get the idea that this is Raw Power part II or anything. But the Stooges moments, like the killer title track, ARE super Stoogey. And ULTRA fuzzed. So imagine an unholy, amateur, low-budget blend of Iggy, Lou Reed, and some Nick Drake too. Sounds good don't it? It is pretty great. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Jungle Rot"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Bother Me"

DEVILS REJECTS, THE OST (Universal) dualdisc cd / DVD 17.98
Plenty of folks hated the move House Of 1000 Corpses. We weren't among 'em. Sure it was a bit of a mess, a little confused, and borrowed HEAVILY from the classics (Last House On The Left, The Hills Have Eyes, and especially The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). But so what?!?! It was a GREAT looking movie. It was fun and gory and gross and pretty wild. One of the problems was putting it up against all the blockbusters, marketing it like a big movie, instead of letting it build momentum and exist as an art house flick, where it belonged. And part of that had to do with the celebrity status of first time director Rob Zombie, of the band White Zombie. The famous rock band, MTV, and all that, the studio probably smelled big bucks. But let's be honest, part of it had to do with the fact that it was not the greatest movie. But that said, imagine you were a total horror movie obsessive, seventies freak, wrestling fan and metal musician, and you were given $7 million dollars to make a horror movie. Doubt I could come up with anything nearly as cool and creepy and evocative as House Of 1000 Corpses. So yeah, we were predisposed to dig the sort-of-sequel The Devil's Rejects. But we had no idea just how much we'd love it. Fuck! This movie totally kicked our ass. Not only was it way more grim and violent and brutal than HO1000C, but the soundtrack was absolutely killer!! First a bit about the movie. Way darker and SO VIOLENT. So violent in fact it's a bit hard to believe they got away with just an R rating. A bit less over the top and outrageous than HO1000C, but definitely more confident, none of those debut feature mis-steps, and a much tighter story arc, and lots of cool cult movie legends (Pee Wee Herman's girlfriend Dottie as a hooker! The Hills Have Eyes' Michael Berryman and the pimp's sidekick / janitor! Sid Haig again as the creepy Captain Spaulding) as well as an amazing bit when the sheriff calls in a very fey Gene Shalit like movie expert to discuss the Marx Brothers films! So funny! The crazy part is how blurry the line is between good and evil. The titular Devil's Rejects are definitely evil and reprehensible, but they're also sort of cool. And bad ass. Albeit in a morally repugnant way. And when the tables are turned, you actually feel sort of bad for them, and hope they'll be able to turn the tables again. And the Sheriff who hunts them down, well he's maybe just as bad. Only difference is he has a badge. Anyway, the movie is bleak and brutal, dusty and sun baked, unlike most 'horror' movies, most of the action takes place under a hot summer sun, and the film stock, the look and feel is all very seventies. So evocative of our youth, which is part of why the soundtrack is so great. Unlike the first movie, where due to budgetary restraints, Zombie was forced to write and record much of the music himself, these tracks were obviously lovingly and carefully chosen, and in the context of the film they are so so perfect. You don't really expect to hear these songs as the musical accompaniment to such utter brutality. The opening credits, a series of stills set to the Allman Brothers' "Midnight Rider", hits so hard, the lyrical refrain of "Not gonna let 'em catch me, no" and the weird moody vibe of the song, as well as the almost jaunty guitar solo, is so weirdly perfect as we watch the Rejects make their getaway. The rest of the soundtrack is packed full of seventies classics, that while being perfect in the film, also play so well as some fucked up seventies eight-track mix tape. Three Dog Night, Elvin Bishop (whose track gets discussed in the movie!), The James Gang, Joe Walsh, David Essex as well as some classic oldies from Otis Rush, Kitty Wells, Buck Owens and the mysterious (and totally kick ass) Banjo And Sullivan, a lower tier 'fictional' honky Tonk band who meet their untimely demise in the movie. The biggest surprise had to be the tracks from Terry Reid. So haunting and achingly beautiful. We knew that he was once the first choice to sing for Led Zeppelin, but the more country tracks here are fucking fantastic. So gut wrenchingly beautiful. The Reid track "Seed Of Memory" plays over the final credits and had us totally choked up. Wow. And you might wince at the inclusion of "Freebird", and you might skip it when you're listening to this disc, but in the context of the movie, and the time the stuff in the movie suppossedly took place, it's perfect! Anyway, it must mean something that with the hundreds of records we have to listen to every day, we keep throwing this one back on. And we're pretty sure we're gonna to go see The Devil's Rejects AGAIN this weekend!! Various soundbites from the film are interspersed between the tracks as well as a couple Banjo And Sullivan radio spots, and this is one of those dual discs, with a cd on one side and a DVD on the other. The DVD features a 30 minute making of The Devil's Rejects short, a bunch of trailers, and you can listen to a Dolby DVD-audio version of the soundtrack accompanied by a slide show of stills from the movies as well as behind the scenes photos.
MPEG Stream: THE ALLMAN BROTHERS "Midnight Rider"
MPEG Stream: THREE DOG NIGHT "Shambala"
MPEG Stream: TERRY REID "Seed Of Memory"

BANJO & SULLIVAN The Ultimate Collection (Universal) cd 11.98
This record is so great! We've been listening to this almost as much as the recent Devils' Rejects soundtrack. Which is sort of funny when you know the whole story. But more on that later in the review. This is a greatest hits of sorts from a mysterious honky tonk bluegrass band from the seventies called Banjo And Sullivan. Mysterious mostly because of their tragic story. According to the liner notes, Adam Banjo and Roy Sullivan were last seen at a dingy hotel called the Kahiki Palms, a brief stop over on their 1978 tour. The scene of a grisly murder, both Banjo and Sullivan's spouses and their roadie Jimmy Cracker were found brutally murdered there. Banjo And Sullivan were never heard from again and were assumed killed. The record itself however should not necessarily be sullied by those tragic events, as the music in this collection is totally fun and funny and kick ass. The lyrics are goofy for sure ("Dick Soup" is the honky tonk equivelent of a 'sausage party' apparently) but the music is so killer. Totally rambunctious, wild and wooly bluegrass, banjos and honky tonk piano, crazy lap steel, and there are hooks all over the place. This is like the perfect blend of classic old time bluegrass and more modern Bloodshoot stuff like The Old 97's -- tracks like "I'm At Home Getting Hammered, While She's Out Getting Nailed", "I'm Trying To Quit, But I Just Quit Trying", "Lord, Don't Let Me Die In A Cheap Motel" and even a killer cover of "Freebird".
The funny part is -- this band actually never even existed! Banjo And Sullivan, as well as their wives Wendy and Gloria and their roadie Jimmy are all characters in the recent Rob Zombie movie The Devil's Rejects! And all of them meet a seriously gruesome end. But how fucking cool is that? What ridiculous attention to detail! There's not even any Banjo And Sullivan music in the movie, but still, they went to all the trouble to record a record, a great record! And then they released it through normal channels. In fact there's no mention anywhere on the package of the movie or Rob Zombie or anything. The only hint is in the liner notes, where it explains that they were the victims of a murderous gang called The Devil's Rejects! So by itself, this is a pretty cool, fun bluegrass record, but having seen the movie and knowing that this is just more elaborate back story for the film, makes this pretty darn amazing!
If you go to the Devil's Rejects website you can link to the Banjo And Sullivan website, check out the tour dates for that final tour in 1978, see photos and even see an old TV commercial for the record!!
MPEG Stream: "Dick Soup"
MPEG Stream: "I'm At Home Getting Hammered (While She's Out Getting Nailed)"
MPEG Stream: "Killer On The Lamb"

DRUNK HORSE In Tongues (Tee Pee) cd 15.98
Sheer rawk powah. Just tune into the first cut "Strange Trangressors" from this, the third and best album yet from Oakland-based hard rock throwbacks Drunk Horse, and get blown away by the power of riff and sweaty rhythm section action (and some tasty slide work courtesy of our pal Josh who used to play in Drunk Horse, after leaving The Champs). It's sophisticated riff rock, a bit more clever and complex than you might realize, when you're busy hoisting beers to their boogie as you should be.
Though titled In Tongues, this album certainly seems less overtly tongue-in-cheek than Drunk Horse has in the past... The jokey element is here pretty much limited to slightly humorous song titles like "Reformed Asshole" and "Nice Hooves". Drunk Horse have always taken themselves and their music seriously, but now they're letting us know it too. For sure Drunk Horse have grown, and gotten even better. One major area of improvement would be the vocals, Eli took a lot more care with his singing this time around and it shows. The band has always had a lot of chops in other areas, so now they're even closer to becoming the new millenium's answer to the classic likes of ZZ Top, Humble Pie and Thin Lizzy. In Tongues is bursting with clever arrangements, wicked leads, gorgeous twin guitar harmonies (there's the Thin Lizzy...), and pop hooks. And that aforementioned sheer rawk powah. Unbeatable.
MPEG Stream: "Strange Transgressors"
MPEG Stream: "Priestmaker"

DUNGEN Ta Det Lugnt (Kemado) 2cd 14.98
The Dungen frenzy continues. The Swedish psych-pop sensations just played some shows on our shores (to mixed reviews -- they might not be an accomplished live act quite yet) and now their much hyped Ta Det Lugnt album from a year or so ago makes the transition from import item to domestic release. We were like, big deal, we have this already and the import's not that expensive -- until we discovered that this digipack US version on Kemado is a DOUBLE cd. That's right, this comes with an extra disc of otherwise unavailable Dungen tunes. Argh. But a good argh I guess, if you're a Dungen fan willing to buy this again 'cause you love 'em so much and want the extra songs. And no argh at all if you've slept on 'em this long -- get it now and then all your already into Dungen friends can burn the bonus disc off of you...
The album proper got this review from us before, let's revisit that review with some updates:
Like fellow Swede and AQ-fave Bjorn Olsson, Gustav Ejstes is a brillant timewarped melody-maker. Though, his "solo" project Dungen sounds more like a band than Olsson's albums do. Wunderkind Ejstes is certainly enamored of '60s/'70s psych-pop and his obsession has borne some fabulous fruit. This is his third album to date (the first being a self-titled LP since reissued on cd in expanded form, the second being the now-hard-to-find Stadsvandringar cd that Allan raved about on our list three years ago, soon to be reissued too we're told). Ta Det Lugnt rocks more than the last one, being brasher, with more in the way of electric guitar frenzies in a Hendrix kinda style. But otherwise it's pretty similar, with Ejstes singing his hook-filled songs in the same somewhat nasal, Swedish langage voice as before. There's jazz jamming, folk frolics, and plenty of fuzz. A retro trip indeed from searing electric rippage to spaced-out, sentimental melodicism. Hard not to love, we've found.
Now, there's the matter of that extra disc, which is fourteen minutes in length. The five previously unreleased songs on there are AWESOME. So basically, if you really like Dungen you've got to buy this (again). Sorry but that's the way it is. 'Nuff said.
MPEG Stream: "Panda"
MPEG Stream: "Ta Det Lugnt"
MPEG Stream: "Sluta Folja Efter"

GREY DATURAS / YELLOW SWANS s/t (JYRK) 2cd-r 13.98
As always, let's get this out of the way first. This is EXTREMELY LIMITED. Only 200 copies were made, and we took about a quarter of 'em. By the time you read this it will already be out of print, so as always, act fast if you want one of these!
You may remember a few lists back, we made the new record from The Grey Daturas, Dead In The Woods, our record of the week. And how could we not? We described their sound as: "blown out fuzzy psych rock. A blurry druggy mix of Hawkwind, the Dead C, Comets On Fire, Residual Echoes, Dead Meadow and Bardo Pond. From churning, throbbing fuzzdrug churn, with squealing feedback and choppy uneven riffing, to drifting dreamy stripped down post rock, all careening wildly between thick swaths of super overdriven psych fuzz, and drenched in crumbly distortion and all manner of wah!" Heck, that sounds so good, it makes us want to pull out Dead In The Woods and throw it on right now!! Well, the Daturas spent a couple months touring the US recently, and while they were in the Bay Area, they crashed with the guys in local free noise ensemble the Yellow Swans. And what do two bands do when they have a week to kill together? Record a record! Or in the case of these guys, record a super limited double cd-r! So what do you get when you mix the drugg free noise psych rock of the Daturas and the noisy clattery skree of the Yellow Swans? Well obviously noise is gonna play a big part of it. No real song structures to speak of, although occasionally a brooding bass line or a simple strummed riff will surface, this is mostly freaked out and free, ambient and abstract. Expansive swaths of guitar noise, amp buzz and electronic glitch and grit. Melodies drift and disintegrate while guitar and bass slowly unfurl all manner of rumble and drone. Definitely reminiscent of Skullflower, Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra, and all that sort of shimmery noisy goodness. Beautiful and droning and so so so good! Packaged in a super cool hand screened cardboard gatefold sleeve, with a creepy spike through the skull image screened on the front in metallic silver!
And in case you missed that bit at the beginning, SUPER SUPER LIMITED!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Two"

FURSAXA Lepidoptera (ATP) cd 15.98
Well, it's about time! After a couple of cd-rs and vinyl-only editions, Tara Burke (aka Fursaxa) has finally released a proper cd for much greater distribuition of her immaculate, hallucinatory music. The Philadelphia based chanteuse has crafted a timeless sound that on one hand finds Burke easily situated alongside the best of the acid-folk revivalists (Devendra Banhart, Six Organs of Admittance, Islaja, etc.), yet on the other, she channels the visionary iconography of Hildegard von Bingen and the iconoclastic obliqueness of Nico in equal measure. On Lepidoptera, as with her previous recordings, Burke floats her primal voice over incredibly simple psychedelic songs of tranced-out organ drones and / or acoustic guitar monochord strum, peppered with echo-heavy flutes and bells. There really isn't that more to what Burke does as Fursaxa, but within her arcane lullabies and primieval psychedelia, she has the ability to emote a profound, dreamy sadness much in the same way that Marissa Nadler has done on her two albums, albeit under far more mystical and psychotropic influences. Truely amazing and utterly mesmerizing.
MPEG Stream: "Purple Fantasy"
MPEG Stream: "Neon Lights"
MPEG Stream: "Poppy Opera"

HIGGINS, GARY Red Hash (Drag City) cd 14.98
Earlier this year when we reviewed School Of The Flower, the latest from modern day acid folk hero Ben Chasny's Six Organs Of Admittance, we mentioned that Ben had become obsessed with the music of one Gary Higgins, an obscure '70s hippie singer/songwriter whose lone LP from 1973, Red Hash, had developed something of a cult following over the decades, not that all that many people had even ever heard OF it, let alone actually heard it. But those who had all spoke highly of its mystic beauty, mysterious aura, and so forth. Ben covered a Higgins song on School Of The Flower, and asked that if anyone knew of his whereabouts to let Drag City know. Apparently that paid off, 'cause now Drag City *has* managed to track down Mr. Higgins and properly reissue Red Hash on cd to enlighten all of us to its wonders. And we bet Ben is excited to now be labelmates with one of his heroes! (They've even performed together in recent months!)
Kicking off with the song that Six Organs' covered, "Thicker Than A Smokey", Red Hash immediately lives up to its reputation as a hidden treasure of psychedelic folk music, oft slow and sad and melancholically melodic. There's a lost and lonely vibe to a lot of this, with Gary's gentle singing and acoustic guitar backed by friends playing piano, cello, mandolin, flute and more. Together they weave eleven tracks of entrancing dope smoking folk music, drifting, sometimes dreary, but always oh so lovely. The freakiness is mainly in the lyrics, which can be quite interestingly cryptic and weird, often regarding the worried wandering and woes of a young man, while the music remains alluringly melodic and inwardly calm. Though, with a deeper voice and more urgent tone, the Beefheartian "Down On The Farm" stands out as more menacing (and humorous) than the rest.
This remastered Drag City reish is really nicely done, with a full-colour booklet of photos and lyrics. Two (lesser) bonus tracks are also included, "Last Great Sperm Whale" from 1975 and "Don't Ya Know" from sometime in the early '80s. But the album alone is a gem and shines just a bright now as it did briefly back in '73. By the way, one reason for its obscurity is that shortly after the LP's original release, Higgins was sent away to prison to do a two-year stretch on a pot bust... so it must be really nice for him to gain some belated recognition nowadays.
MPEG Stream: "Windy Child"
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Sleep At Night"

NO NECK BLUES BAND The Collective Imaginings of Quantarenius, Cook, & Co. (Greene Naftali) cd 21.00
Subtitled "An Urban Ceremonial", this super limited new release from AQ faves the No Neck Blues Band documents a live performance at the Greene Naftali Gallery in November of 2004. It's been a little while since we've heard from these guys, but thankfully they sound as good as ever, maybe a little more subdued and subtle, although that could just be the venue or even this particular performance. As always, the NNBB offer up a langorous, dreamily exotic tribal soundscape of crystalline shimmers, drifting ambient slivers of high end, muted tribal drumming, subtle velvet shadings of reverbed guitar, simple shuffling rhythms, chimes and bells, ghostly woodwinds, drifting psych guitar drone, occasional clang and clatter, music box-like melodies all swirled into a rambling soundscape of tribal ambience, krautrock creep and pagan folk ritual.
Packaged in an oversized carboard sleeve with a poster. And again EXTREMELY LIMITED!
MPEG Stream: "The Hungrier I Get"
MPEG Stream: "Love For Sale"

OCEAN, THE Fluxion (Throne) cd 13.98
With everyone freaking out about Isis, Pelican, Neurosis, Cult Of Luna, and all things massively and epically metal, all churning riffs and pounding majesty, it's hard to believe that most people have never heard, or even heard of German outfit The Ocean. Because in some ways, hard as it may seem to believe, they've almost managed to sonically outdo their obvious influences. The basic sound will be familiar for sure, massive guitars, pounding drums, propulsive, relentless riffing, blissed out, post rock parts that build and build and build into huge squalls of gargantuan guitarnoise, throbbing and pulsing, minor key and epic. But, in the case of The Ocean, they manage to add all sort of extra weirdness and not-so-subtle nuance than really makes Fluxion stand out. The presence of a full on string section (as well as some clarinets and other decidedly non rock instruments) is the first thing, which obviously lends the whole thing a much more stately, mournful feel, making them sound at times like a heavy metal Godspeed You Black Emperor. There's also a whole bunch of melodic flourishes scattered throughout, just here and there, that make what could be standard metal riffs become something a little bit out of the ordinary. The order of the day though is definitely metallic pummel, growled gutteral vocals over ultra thick Teutonic riffs, their German-ness shines through a bit in those instances, reminding us a bit of Rammstein, and when the keyboards kick in, there's definitely some Dimmu Borgir going on. And there is definitely a black metal vibe throughout, although it's bent and twisted to fit into The Ocean's moody metal framework. But the sound is so much more expansive and epic than most black metal, or most metal in general, especially when the guitars bliss out a bit, and strings are soaring, guitars picking out arpeggiated minor key melodies, everything eventually erupting into full on metallic bombast. And even in the midst of TOTAL METAL, the melodies are still moody and intense, the riffing is weird and the overal vibe is super dramatic and ultra intense. Fans of the 'new mood metal', a la Pelican, Isis, Cult Of Luna, as well as fans of the new metallic post rock (Conifer, Tides, Mouth Of The Architect, etc.) will be totally blown away!
Some of the most amazing packaging we've seen, a multi panel digipak, depicting a huge shcool of fish, with the band name and random spatters printed in a glossy varnish. The gatefold is a huge two panel spread of dead gutted fish, and inside all the liner notes and lyrics are printed glossy black on matte black. Wow!
MPEG Stream: "Nazca"
MPEG Stream: "The Human Stain"
MPEG Stream: "Comfort Zones"

PELICAN The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
This album prompted a discussion here about how there's the post rock bands that throw in some heavy, riffy metal bits to make things weirder and more interesting (and maybe so they don't seem quite so wimpy). And there's also the metal bands that write some pretty, quiet post rock parts also to be weird and interesting (and so as not to seem like total Neanderthals). In both cases, when things work out well, the results are a band that sounds not like, uh, wimpy Neanderthals but rather like intelligent and sensitive types who also possess crushing might. Pretty much every boy's ideal, eh? And Chicago instrumental heavies (and big AQ faves) Pelican are a great example of this, even though -- especially with this new album -- we can't quite decide if they're a metal band first post rock band second or the other way around. The very first track on The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw, "Last Day Of Winter", is seemingly more on the post rock side, all simmering moodiness and storm-yet-to-be-unleashed power. It IS big and loud but not really metal. Eventually the album offers up some truly uber metal moments, though, yes. Pelican's vaunted heaviness remains. But things are overall at least equally dreamy...dreamy and layered and melodically mathy, with post rock dynamics that dip into quiet, relaxed territory as much as they charge into heavy rock battle. Track four, for instance, is ALL gentle acoustic string-strum, with hints also of glitchy electronic crackle. We were prepared for this by their warm-up ep March Into The Sea (the title track of which is reprised here in edited form) wherein those acoustic guitars were added to Pelican's sonic palette. Pelican's vast, riff-ravaged landscape now has little lovely flowers growing, and expands to even further horizons. Funnily enough, "March Into The Sea" itself also offers some of the most metal (fast, furious) passages on here. Whatever you call it, the music of Pelican is (and always has been) totally mesmerizing and epic. Even if this album makes us think that it's almost like Pelican are turning into Kinski. Who aren't metal even though they are sometimes quite heavy. And who we also like a lot after all.
Ok, enough about all this post rock vs. metal stuff (though we will say that the presence of an extensive "thanks" list argues for Pelican indeed being a metal band at heart). What's important is that anyone into massive sonics of riff-shifting symphonic complexity OR blissful simplicity, should bow down to the juggernaut genius of Pelican's lastest opus...now that sounds fairly metal, don't it? Mention should also be made of the really quite lovely cd packaging here -- the cd booklet's got a translucent vellum cover and some cool interior artwork. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Last Day Of Winter"
MPEG Stream: "Autumn Into Summer"

SCHARPLING & WURSTER Hippy Justice: The Best Of Scharpling & Wurster On The Best Show On WFMU Volume 3 (Stereolaffs) 2cd 14.98
The first thing we thought when we heard this was, how the hell do these guys do this without cracking up?? Here's the setup: Tom Scharpling is a DJ on WFMU and takes calls from listeners. Ocassionally one of those callers will be Jon Wurster (Superchunk drummer!), portraying any one of a number of annoying characters and the comedy genius that ensues is, well, GENIUS!
The first track is Hippy Johnny, where Wurster calls up as Hippy Johnny and proceeds to discuss his commune where the men make art and the women make dinner, dressed in fur bikinis, and the children manufacture drain cleaner and other not-so-natural products. It's kind of a twisted Tom's of Maine idea. The funny part is how disgusted Scharpling becomes over the course of the 20 minute call, eventually giving up, exasperated and disgusted. The second call is a Wuster again as a guy who apparently used to be in the little kid punk rock band Old Skull, concerning their REUNION tour. An idea that's ridiculous enough to begin with. As the call progresses, we learn that he was only in the band briefly, none of the main members are involved, and a quick sample of their new music displays a drastic new shift in musical direction. Which of course has Scharpling hysterical. Hard to explain how funny this stuff if, you should definitely listen to the sound samples and know that when we play this in the store, everyone freezes, stops what they're doing and listens intently until everyone in the store seems to be laughing uproariously. The rest of the calls involve a cowoker and his nefarious plans for Tom, a phone call from a two inch tall racist, Gene Simmons' rock and roll car dealership and an epic, brutally funny and painful to listen to call from a guy known simply as Kid eBay. From the same guys who brought us the brilliant Rock, Rot And Rule, Chain Fights, Beer Busts, and Service with a Grin, and New Hope For The Ape-Eared. So highly recommended!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Hippy Johnny"
MPEG Stream: "Darren From Work"

THUJA Pine Cone Temples (Strange Attractors) 2cd 17.98
Ah, Thuja, the mothership if you will of the Jewelled Antler armada. Featuring names that by now should be quite familiar to AQ customers: Loren Chasse, Steven R. Smith, Glenn Donaldson and Rob Reger.
Between them, these four are responsible for fifty records at least, under twenty or more different monickers. All of them great, and all of them loosely based in one way or another on nature, or natural sounds, or the way music and found sounds interact with the spaces they are performed in. There are instruments like guitars, drums, bass, but more often than not, you'll find sticks and stones, found objects, junk, all sorts of industrial and natural detritus, recorded, re-broadcast, and recorded again. Utilizing natural reverb, the sounds of certain spaces, ambient sounds as well as making the act of making music, music in itself. Wow. So what does Pine Cone Temples sound like?
It's wide open and expansive. Ambient perhaps, but there's too much going on for it to be strictly ambient. It's more a sort of abstract soundscape, the sort of soundscape the requires close listening, active listening, in order to understand, and feel the sounds, not just hear them. The rustle of leaves, crickets maybe, running water, or are those sounds manufactured by the band in an attempt to pay homage to the music of nature? Does it matter. Maybe its both, the sound of running water accompanied by Thuja emulating the sound of running water. Clicks and creaks, and little bits of clatter, a simple melody played on a recorder, warm organ warble, whipsering wind, toy xylophone notes released and left to drift in the slowly shifting breeze, distant bird calls, reverbed piano, dark cavernous rumbles, shimmering single notes stretched perilously across a sound field dotted with the echo of dripping water and the buzz of vibrating guitar strings. This isn't so much music as it is simply sound, sound that has been lovingly shaped and guided, observed and interacted with, recorded in its element. As if Thuja were just recordists, who use their own sounds to lure the sounds of nature to come just a little closer, in order to capture them raw and natural, and incorporate them into the sun dappled cloak of their jewelled nature-folk. The sounds of music can be smooth and soothing, or raw and primitive, as can the music of sound, and thus Thuja, whose music of sound is pure, and organic, lush and lustrous, and breathtakingly beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled One"

V/A Crushing The Holy Trinity (Northern Heritage) 3cd 35.00
This will most likely end up being the most essential, and due to its ultra limited status, soon to be most sought after, black metal artifact of 2005. Three discs, six bands, some you know, some you've never heard of, all completely killer. And unlike a normal compilation, each band on Crushing The Holy Trinity contributes 20-30 minutes of music instead of just a single five minute track. Three discs, titled appropriately enough, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, two bands to a disc. Most of you will probably need this just for the exclusive Deathspell Omega track, and rightfully so. A single 22 minute track (nearly as long as their recent full length!), epic and totally amazing, lots of moody post rock rhythms, grim black metal crush, and all sorts of damaged squiggly guitars, and unlikely riffs, strange arrangements and all the brilliantly un-black metal stuff that makes DSO's black metal so compelling. But the other five bands manage to hold their own, and then some! The other band on the Father disc with DSO is a band we had never heard of, Stabat Mater, whose lengthy single track is bleak and gorgeously depressive, a monstrous gutteral bellowing over a dreary melancholic doomscape, brutal blackened dooooom. Pretty darn good. Disc Son starts off with four tracks from Finnish BM outfit Musta Surma, another band new to us, who deliver buzzing blasts of harsh and brittle, true and grim sounding thrashy black metal. Then comes Clandestine Blaze, a band we are quite familar with, and who despite having never been reviewed on the AQ list, are one of our favortie BM outfits. Thick guitars, churning and crunchy, with minor key melodies atop them, a bit like Xasthur's Nocturnal Poisoning, all midtempo and hypnotic, with lots of strange ambient drones and creepy martial percussion. Really cool! The final disc, Holy Spirit, introduces us to two more bands we knew nothing about. First up, the curiously named Mgla, who definitely hit the spot for classic grim black metal, super buzzy and droney, very lo-fi, lots of thrashing rhythms and mosquito buzz riffage and demonic howls! The big surprise out of all these bands would definitely have to be Exordium, who completely kicked our asses tens seconds into their first song. Wow! Super white hot hyperdistorted buzz guitar, lightning fast blast beats, killer riffs, the whole thing blown out and recorded so hot the speakers can barely handle it!
The whole thing comes packaged in super nice, DVD sized cardboard sleeve, with a big booklet, two pages for each bands, with photos and liner notes.
SUPER LIMITED. We have a bunch of these in stock, and a bunch more on the way from Finland, but be prepared to be patient, and realize that we won't have these for long!!!
MPEG Stream: DEATHSPELL OMEGA "Diabolus Absconditus"

----*
----* Selected New Arrivals :
----*

AFRIRAMPO Kore Ga Mayaku Da (Tzadik) cd 15.98
At last, an Afrirampo release that's not so hard to obtain, as the duo makes their domestic US debut on John Zorn's Tzadik label. John Zorn being the guy that first clued a lot of us in to the Boredoms, coincidentally enough. Well, whether deliberately or not, it would seem that the two girls from Osaka, Japan known as Afrirampo are channelling the chaos and confusion of early early Boredoms (who also hail from Osaka). If you miss the noisiness of the Boredoms circa Soul Discharge, you might have a nice flashback from this. There's lots of screaming and singing (the wild, wide variety of their vocals is one of Afrirampo's trademarks, along with the arty costumes that feature in their live presentations) and distorted guitar and crazed percussion and boundless energy here. Lots and lots of all that. It's all very dramatic and weird and doubtless annoying to some in the same way the Boredoms once were (some of US here at AQ actually can't stand to hear this when it's being played in the store). The very first track will let you know if you're up to their test or not: almost 12 minutes that range from raging Bore-punk to vocal baby babble to mean metal guitar riffage. If you dig that, the rest of the record will be right up your alley. And anyone who is already a fan won't be disappointed with this Tzadik disc either.
MPEG Stream: "I Did Are"
MPEG Stream: "Nakimushikemushi Good Bye!"

AJATTARA Tyhjyys (Spikefarm) cd 17.98
Tyhjyys (whatever that means?) is this Finnish black metal band's third album. Getting no argument from Ajattara's fans at AQ, they haven't strayed from their successful formula of dark, midtempo, heaviness -- adorned with eerie keys and underpined by pounding drums. And they still 'sing' in Finnish. Although a crushing proposition overall, some melody emerges amid the guitar riffs and vocal rasps. It's bouncy death march music for industrial goblins.
MPEG Stream: "Harhojen Renki"
MPEG Stream: "Langennut"

BERRY, KEITH A Strange Feather (Twenty Hertz) 2cd-r 25.00
It's a mystery how we managed to miss the previous recordings from the British ultra-minimalist Keith Berry, because if there's any justice in the world, he should be mentioned alongside such blue-chip drone artists as William Basinski, Thomas Koner, Bernhard Gunter, and Akira Rabelais. Yeah, his work is that good! He's got the sublimely romantic melodicism of Basinski, the glacial pacing of Koner, the hushed restraint of Gunter, and, um well, he's got a copy of Rabelais' legendary Argeiphontes Lyre software in his repertoire. But Berry is no mere aggregate of previously mined aesthetics, there's plenty to his work that speaks of his own beliefs and agendas which all draw heavily from Zen philosophies. While Berry's previous work The Golden Boat (Trente Oiseaux, 2003) and The Ear That Was Sold To The Fish (Crouton, 2005) were both exceptional releases (with the Crouton album easily being the best smelling record of 2005!), each of Berry's albums makes small adjustments that add up to an improvement and refinement of his sound; thus A Strange Feather stands out a remarkable achievement. Like all of the previously cited composers, Berry's fundamental structure is the drone supreme into which he bends field recordings, subtle instrumental arrangements, and small tactile events. Like falling snow, his dreamy work drifts with a poetic chill and tranquil hypnosis through which peripheral elements tease the listener with subtle details. It's so damn beautiful; and oh yes, the double cd version is very limited to 100 copies of which we only have a handful!
MPEG Stream: "A Strange Feather (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "A Strange Feather (excerpt 2)"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Gore Motel (Epistrophy) 2lp 39.00
This is nice. For all you Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore fans (or at least 19 of you, as that's how many of these we were able to get), we've got a deluxe vinyl pressing, the first time ever on LP for this, the debut album from the AQ fave German instrumental dirge-jazz group. The import price is helped out by the fact that this comes in a black box with "BOHREN" stamped in silver on the lid, and within the box you not only will find two slabs of vinyl weighted down with their magnificent music, but also tucked in with those there's sundry printed ephemera of apparent Bohren-related interest (b&w art and text, mainly in German). The Gore Motel album was first released on cd back in 1994. When we discovered Borhen a few years after that and got their discs for the store, we wrote the following about this album: "...dark, stark, slow-moving, and lovely. For those who crave comparisons, this is like a super-dirgey version of Scenic. Music for a dark-night campfire out on the plains of Mordor. Slow and beautiful, relying heavily on the ultra-heavy subsonics of the bass and the eerie wavering tones of the organ...Very atmospheric and evocative, indeed chilling."
Of course, this is a very limited, numbered pressing (300 copies!) and, to repeat, we only received a handful. First come, first served on this one.
MPEG Stream: "Sabbat Schwarzer Highway"
MPEG Stream: "Die Fulci Nummer"

BORIS Mabuta No Ura (Inoxia) lp / poster / picture cards 40.00
Boris fans are definitely obsessive, most wanting to collect anything and everything the band puts out, whether it's the same record with different artwork, or a limited single, or the same record with 9 minutes of extra music or a different record with the same cover or whatever. The band don't really help matters much, wholeheartedly playing into this, releasing records in ridiculously limited versions and multiple versions, with different artwork or bonus tracks or both. But this new record Mabuta No Ura has definitely pushed all this multiple version collecting about as far as it can go. More on that at the end of the review -- and we definitely suggest you read that stuff before you buy! But hey, let's talk about the record. A soundtrack to a film entitled Mabuta No Ura, this is Boris at their most abstract, maybe even at their least heavy, but Boris has yet to disappoint, and they don't here. Although depending on your personal favorite style of Boris, whether it be the slow sludgy dirges, the minimal drones or the all out super distorted RAWK, you might have to readjust your thinking to get into Mabuta No Ura. There's only one actually 'heavy track', and some of you may already have it, or at least a version of it, as the track in question, "A Bao A Qu" was released as a super limited picture disc 7" not too long ago. "A Bao A Qu" finds Boris churning through a sludgy slab of crushing psych rock, the way only they seem to do it. The rest of Mabuta No Ura finds the band exploring much more contemplative moods, constructing simple, dreamy passages of finger picked guitar, and warm swells of moody ambience. Sometimes sounding a bit like Low, sometimes a little like Slint, the theme here overall does seem to be a brooding slow building post rock. There are variations of course, Eastern sounding melodies, hazy chanted vocals, shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle, tribal rhythms, hand claps, plaintive vocalising, stretches of Sunroof!-like free-noise ambience, blown out krautrock rhythms, but it all sort of hovers around that post rock sound we love so much, dark and moody and smoldering, occasionally bursting with dynamics, but more often than not chugging along all melancholy and contemplatively propulsive. Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be, but the songs and sounds here are quite evocative, and let our imaginations conjure up the appropriate images to go with these sumptuous sounds. Packaged in a gorgeous chipboard slipcover die cut sleeve, with a dozen cd sized photos, presumable from the film, with stories printed on the other sides, unfortunately all in Japanese.
So here's the complicated stuff. There are FOUR versions of this record. All of them slightly different. This is the ULTRA LIMITED Japanese lp version. 500 made, we got about 1/5 of those. Once they are gone they are gone for good. And since it's so limited, only one per customer. The deluxe lp version comes in a gateflod sleeve, with a big poster, and a dozen 12" x 12" cards with images from the film on one side and Japanese / English text on the other. We also have the Japanese cd version in stock, which comes in a cool diecut chiboard sleeve, has the same music as the lp, and is not limited. There will be another cd version, released by the Brazilian label Essence, and there will be two versions of that. A super deluxe boxed version, and a regular digipak version. The deluxe version is super limited. Only 120 copies made. We're getting half. Those will all be spoken for by the time we get them, so if you want one of those, pre-order it now. The regular Brazilian version is the same as the deluxe version just with less packaging. And is not limited.
Confused yet? Well, stick with us just a little bit longer. The Brazilian version has more music than the Japanese version. BUT, the Japanese version has music NOT on the Brazilian version. Okay. So if you just want to make sure you have ALL the music, you need both the Japanese version AND the Brazilian version. And since the Japanese cd and the Brazilian regular cd are not limited, you can easily pick up both. The lp and the deluxe version are just for those of you who need the fancy versions or feel compelled to collect them all. Finally, the Brazilian cd version won't be out until end of August or thereabouts, so orders WILL NOT be held for those! If you want both, we'll send you the Japanese cd or lp (or both!) now and the Brazilian version when they show up in a month or so. Phew!
MPEG Stream: "A Bao A Qu"
MPEG Stream: "The Slow Ripple Of A Puddle"
MPEG Stream: "It Touches"

CAESARS Paper Tigers (EMI) cd 13.98
The Residents made an astute point when they noted that pop songs are commercial jingles (something to that effect or perhaps it was vice versa). A lot of the folks who compose music for commercials are undeniably some serious hook writers... which is why it's not at all surprising that ad execs got savvy to buying up current and past proven hits for use in ads. Hence, you might already unknowingly be familiar with this band (or at least one song of theirs) 'cause as a big sticker proclaims on this cd's shrinkwrap, it "features 'Jerk It Out' as heard in the iPod Shuffle commercial". Hell, it's definitely a great song (the band and their label both know it, having dished out different versions of the tune already on two other releases to date), but it's sad that it's gonna forever be associated with a product and not, say, your summer fun day at the beach or sumthin'. Anyhoo, that said, this is a bright bouyant pop album with nods to both the '60s and '80s. Lead singer Cesar Vidal's slightly nasal, emotive vocals sound quite a bit like those of Oasis... that is, if those Gallagher brothers took an enormous happy pill and moved to Sweden. Good stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Jerk It Out"
MPEG Stream: "Good And Gone"

CHARM Original Soundtrack + The Movie (5RC) cd + dvd 14.98
Charm is a gore-tastic low-budget psychological horror film made in the year 2000 by San Francisco underground moviemakers, former AQ-er Sadie Shaw and Sarah Reed (both of The Husbands). Five years later, it's finally available on dvd and cd!
The soundtrack covers a wide range of song styles. All are appropriately haunting, though they travel from classic soundtrack stuff to pulsing techno beats to spaced-out melancholia.
Some highlights are Tim Green's very classic sounding title theme; Aislers Set's Joy Division-ish rhythm on "Attraction Action Reaction"; Deerhoof's rowdy noise-fest on "Appetite"; Replikants' spacey melancholia of "Memory" sounding a lot like that Ulrich Schnauss we listed a little while back; a weird one from The Need with lots of dog barking and Carol Channingesque vocal magic; Sara Lund and Aaron Beam's appropriately titled "A Lucid Moment" which is a melodically peaceful moment before the Thrones' "The Walk" creeps up at you; Concentrick's technocratic "Dansk Floor"; The Lies' angry rock song, "Wrong Kind Of Flirt"; and again with Tim Green and his classic-film-score "Epilogue".
This movie is for fans of lo-budge emotionally-charged gore flims, its soundtrack for fans of, well, awesome soundtracks!
MPEG Stream: TIM GREEN "Main Title Theme"
MPEG Stream: AISLERS SET "Attraction Action Reaction"
MPEG Stream: THRONES "The Walk"

EVOKEN Antithesis Of Light (Mercenary) cd 13.98
Depressive doom death from New Jersey. Where else? Well they kinda sound like they're from Finland, actually, the land of funereal doom acts like Skepticism, Rapture, and Shape Of Despair. But these guys have been on the scene for a long time and are probably inspired by such older bands such as Long Island's Winter and of course the primitive godfathers of the extreme doom/death scene, Hellhammer. Though, the keyboard-laden dirges of Evoken demonstrate a more sophisticated form of grim brutality, one that generates its own notion of beauty, with gutteral vocals, eerie atmospheres, slow-motion riffs and minor-key melodies. Lamentations of misery drawn out to (hopefully) cathartic extremes. It's been four years since Evoken unleashed their masterful Quietus album, and in that time they haven't gotten any happier, that's for sure. Antithesis of Light stops the clock with 71 endless minutes comprising seven sorrowful songs of massive mournful metal. It's perhaps the doomiest, deathliest lower-depths trudge we've heard since the last Runemagick disc.
MPEG Stream: "In Solitary Ruin"
MPEG Stream: "Pavor Nocturnus"

FIELD MUSIC s/t (Chrysalis) cd 14.98
Field Music are primarily Peter Brewis and Andrew Moore, but for their self-titled debut they're joined by string players Emma Fisk, Rachael Davis and Peter Richardson as well as sax player John Steele. You might've seen/heard the two lads before though. They're in a couple bands you might be more familiar with... Franz Ferdinand and Maximo Park. Who? Never heard of 'em. Hahahaha. Ahem, this project is far less punchy and rambunctious than either of their day jobs. The tunes are still very poppy, but in a much more gentle breezy fashion. Sort of a well-crafted cross between Sea And Cake, Pinback and Brian Wilson. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "If Only The Moon Were Up"
MPEG Stream: "Tell Me Keep Me"

FINCHES, THE Six Songs (self released) cd 7.98
A no-frills and super down to earth debut. As the title states this is a half dozen tunes from Bay Area folksy folks The Finches. The duo of Ms Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and Aaron Morgan share the singin' and guitar playin' duties, and Morgan also handles the bass playin' too. Each of their songs is thoughtful, well-crafted and slightly rough around the edges much like Carolyn's lovely lino-cut cover art. Achingly intimate and pretty, and quite along the lines of folk-pop songstresses such as Cat Power or Julie Doiron. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "The Road"
MPEG Stream: "The Horse With Two Front Doors"

FOO FIGHTERS In Your Honor (Sony) 2cd 17.98
As we all know since the last Foo Fighters' album Dave Grohl has kept himself knee-deep in high profile projects -- drumming for Queens Of The Stone Age, Tenacious D, and Killing Joke as well as his own 'metal' collaborative monstrosity Probot. He's certainly contributed much to the other bands he's played with and they in turn have left their influential marks on him. Unlike the likes of Keith Moon or Bill Ward, few drummers these days have honed their own distinct personal sound. Grohl is an exception. His drumming and songwriting both have an unmistakable Grohl-ness. This is apparent right from the lead-off track of In Your Honor. That song (which is also the title track) sure sounds like he nicked a few useful cues from the awesome force that is Killing Joke and encorporated them into the Foo Fighters realm. It introduces a much more unforgiving pummel to their already thoroughly punchy sound. In Your Honor has a loud/heavy disc and a quieter/gentler one -- embodying the two sides of Grohl. Where both sides of Grohl stumble a bit this time out however is in the lyric department. He's pulled out some serious cliche rhymes. But for fans who want some big catchy glossy rock (and maybe some more moody subdued mellow glossy rock to go along with it) this will probably hit the spot!

GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER #6 (Drag City) magazine + 2cd 16.98
Plastic Crimewave's immense, amazing psychedelic music zine (almost also a comic book 'cause it's all hand lettered and drawn, and does indeed include some underground comix, as well as a feature on "psychedelic superheroes"), the one and only Galactic Zoo Dossier, returns with issue number six!! This time, you'll find interviews with quite an odd/interesting assortment of folks: Vanilla Fudge, Keith Rowe (ex-AMM), John Renbourn, and Pip Proud. Plus features and bits on psychsters old and new and heavy and obscure including Acid Mothers Temple, Debris, Stackwaddy, Rodriguez, Edgar Broughton, Uriah Heep, The Lemon Drops, Exuma, The Outsiders, etc.
And, beyond the 'zine, you get the second set of Crimewave illustrated "Damaged Guitar Gods" trading cards -- including John DuCann (Atomic Rooster), Michael Yonkers, Wally Gonzalez (Juan De La Cruz), Davy Graham, Dorothy & Helen Wiggins (The Shaggs), Erik Brann (Iron Butterfly), Erkin Koray, BoAnders Persson (Trad Gras Och Stenar) and dozens more. Pretty darn cool. Plus, that's not all: there's also a freakin' double cd compilation entitled Ascension Days When We Rise: Ultra-Rare Avant/Psych/Garage 1960's-1990. It features Acid Mothers Temple, The Heads, Six Organs Of Admittance, Miminokoto, The Hototogisu, Oneida, Michael Karoli, and a bunch more, some we've never heard of before but are eager to check out. This 'zine is just such a "turn on" regarding the underground sounds obsessed about within. Something about everything in the magazine being handwritten not only gives it more of an organic, '60s psych vibe but also utterly underscores how much of a labor of love this is, just how incredibly ENTHUSIASTIC Plastic Crimewave and Co. are about this stuff. Right on.

GET HIM EAT HIM Geography Cones (Absolutely Kosher) cd 13.98
We're not sure if the band Get Him Eat Him are actually carnivorous, but if their music is any indication, we can tell you that they do have an appreciation for sweet treats of the pop variety. Geography Cones is loaded up with dreamy boyish pop very much along the lines of Death Cab For Cutie and Pinback. In fact, the vocals bring to mind a more gaspy Benjamin Gibbard. Their new label home Absolutely Kosher has certainly become quite the trusted hub of brainy pop studiousness -- Wrens, Sparrow, Rob Crow and the abovementioned Pinback to name a few artists whose releases grace that label. For those of us who always crushed over the shy bookworm sitting in the front row versus the loudmouth rowdy bruiser or eye-catchin' jock Adonis in the back... catch our drift?
MPEG Stream: "The Celebration"
MPEG Stream: "Pardon My French"

GONZALEZ, WALLY On The Road (Vicor) cd 15.98
Wally Gonzalez, guitarist from the Phillippines' proto stoner rock combo the Juan De La Cruz band, stepped out in the late '70s with these two newly cd-ified solo records, 1977's Tunog Pinoy and 1978's On The Road. They're not that heavy but do feature lotsa wailing Wally guitar action -- and wild/cheesy keyboard synth sizzlin' too. Wally fronts 'em both on guitar and vocals and although each was recorded with a different backing band, the two discs are pretty similar. Slow-burning mellow psych pop ballads are mixed with strutting boogie numbers. What titles there are in English are along the lines of "Rock & Roll Mama", "Wally's Blues", "Rockin' Roller" and, uh, "Screw". Neither album is as raw and gritty as the best of Juan De La Cruz, but this is still good fun hard rock and folky balladry, Filipino style, with a polyester '70s sheen that will either kitschly add to your enjoyment or perhaps ruin it totally.
MPEG Stream: "Kailan Pa Kaya"
MPEG Stream: "Tattong Araw"

GONZALEZ, WALLY Tunog Pinoy (Vicor) cd 15.98
Wally Gonzalez, guitarist from the Phillippines' proto stoner rock combo the Juan De La Cruz band, stepped out in the late '70s with these two newly cd-ified solo records, 1977's Tunog Pinoy and 1978's On The Road. They're not that heavy but do feature lotsa wailing Wally guitar action -- and wild/cheesy keyboard synth sizzlin' too. Wally fronts 'em both on guitar and vocals and although each was recorded with a different backing band, the two discs are pretty similar. Slow-burning mellow psych pop ballads are mixed with strutting boogie numbers. What titles there are in English are along the lines of "Rock & Roll Mama", "Wally's Blues", "Rockin' Roller" and, uh, "Screw". Neither album is as raw and gritty as the best of Juan De La Cruz, but this is still good fun hard rock and folky balladry, Filipino style, with a polyester '70s sheen that will either kitschly add to your enjoyment or perhaps ruin it totally.
MPEG Stream: "Palaman"
MPEG Stream: "Pinag-Isa"

HAFLER TRIO, THE How To Reform Mankind (Korm Plastics) cd 22.00
How To Reform Mankind marks yet another entry in the reissue campaign of The Hafler Trio's early research into sound and its effect upon the human psyche. It was the third in what now stands as the first of many untitled "triologies of three," standing as the final chapter to the series featuring Kill The King and Mastery of Money. Within the entire catalogue of the Hafler Trio, How To Reform Mankind (1994) represents one of the last records that Andrew McKenzie produced before drastically slowing down his activities in the middle and late '90s. In many ways, this album is also an exceptional culmination of the ideas that McKenzie propagated throughout the '80s, which reflect a considerably different perspective upon his work, his life, and the world in general. The early Hafler Trio albums revelled in the miscommunication, the recycling of information within new contexts, and a disorientation caused by the play between what is real and what might be real. In recent years, The Hafler Trio's idioms have suggested a revelation / obfuscation of truth in the grand traditions of ancient Gnosticism.
Psychoacoustics and the psychological impact of sound have both figured heavily into all of the Hafler Trio's work, and these areas of research are profoundly present on How To Reform Mankind. Subtle flutterings of shortwave data have been processed into rarified air; low volume, resonant frequencies colliding with the body for a chest-cavity massage; the clunky piano from McKenzie's Negentropy album returns as a post-serialist leitmotif; and desolate sonar plinks slam against metal walls to astounding effect. McKenzie's uncompromising drive for his art has made the Hafler Trio one of the greatest artistic endeavors of the last two decades; and How To Reform Mankind stands close to the top of his best recordings.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we cannot offer sound samples of the Hafler Trio's work. Oh well.

HONEYWELL, PEGGY Faint Humms (Galaxia) cd 13.98
Here's a new full length from this folk pop songstress following her lovely debut Honey For Breakfast album from 2002. Her slightly weary lilt of a voice hints that she might be the long lost kid sister of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. She picks right up where she left off with this lengthier gathering of unadorned acoustic guitar, banjo and vocals. Hushed, sweet and intimate. Please note: If you've seen her play recently and bought a copy of the cd-r that she had for sale, this might be the cd version of that same material (this is according to a Honeywell-lovin' AQ customer who did that very thing).
MPEG Stream: "Peach And Yellow"
MPEG Stream: "Smile And Compliment"

JAMNATION s/t (Prestidigitation) cd 14.98
We read about this recently on Julian Cope's Head Heritage website -- he picked it as his Album of the Month for July 2005. We had to hear it. And having heard it, we liked it enough to order a few of 'em in! The punningly titled Jamnation isn't quite like anything we've come across before. It's, um, stoner rock spoken word. Huh?
We've never been all that big on the "spoken word" thing here at AQ, not really. Stand up comedy, maybe -- of course we like our David Cross records. And Bill Hicks. Even there, the good stuff is a rarity. But spoken word? You say spoken word, we start thinking poetry slam. Not good. Though we'll concede that there's been some worthwhile practitioners of the form. Steven Jesse Bernstein was interesting. And Rollins we have to say has had his moments. And we'll listen to This American Life all day -- we guess that stuff counts as spoken word, right?
But get this. Jamnation is a spoken word album, the voice and words of one Dan McGuire. But it's also a killer stoner/psych rock compilation of sorts. That's 'cause McGuire has gotten it into his head to speak his spoken words not over some tired Beat-style bongo jam or loungey jazz backing, but over searing electric guitar ramalamajama, epic-length tracks he's chosen out by some far-out and obscure heavy rock bands who happen to be faves of his, old and new (American '70s psych monsters the JPT Scare Band and Josefus, modern day stoner space rockers Gas Giant and ILD HU from Holland, and Japan's retro doom hippies Eternal Elysium). Which goes a long way to explaining just how McGuire's Jamnation wound up being so honored by Julian Cope. We certainly can't improve on what Cope wrote -- fella's got a way with words, y'know -- so we suggest you go read it yrself. 'Specially since you should be checking out his site anyway, a recommendation we've made before to all AQ-list readers who are into the psych/heavy side of things. Visit it at www.headheritage.co.uk.
Having picked these tracks out of his record collection (much easier than actually working with actual live musicans, claims McGuire, and we're sure he's right) he then finds the space in each song for his verbal embellishments. It's the same idea really the old Jamiacan DJ's had when they first started "toasting". This really works 'cause McGuire's verbiage is equally billed with the music. Actually it takes a back seat to the music a lot of the time, really. It's not all about him, its about the jams. Sometimes it seems whole minutes will pass while McGuire lets the guitars take center stage. Wow -- a spoken word dude that shuts up when necessary. Cool. And when he is talking, he weaves his words perfectly into the rhythms of the music. His voice is husky and laidback, a little bit like John Wayne / Henry Rollins hybrid, spinning visions of gritty reality and far out freak scenes. What he says is sometimes amusing, often cryptic, and never laughably embarrassing at any rate. It's sorta druggy rambling ranting stuff that fits perfectly with this tunage! Truly, we need to let what he's saying sink in more to give a good account of it...the thing is, McGuire's speech goes so well with the wailing guitars and chugging riffs that we're not always paying the closest attention to what he's on about, we're just digging the totality of the listening experience.
So, in sum Jamnation is a pretty excellent heavy jams comp with a guy talking over it at times, in a pretty cool, Lizard King way that fits in with the music anyway.
MPEG Stream: JOSEFUS "Dead Man"
MPEG Stream: JPT SCARE BAND "Time To Cry"

JIM YOSHII PILE-UP Picks Us Apart (Absolutely Kosher) cd 13.98
On their third cd release for Absolutely Kosher these five East Bay fellows take us in a new direction. On Picks Us Apart, they move further away from their earlier prominent Slint / Mogwai influences. They've replaced their past post-rock loud-quiet leanings with gentle pop song structures comprised of decidedly sweet sensitive boy vocals, strummy multi-layered guitars reminiscent of mid-to-late '80s The Cure. Although some might be a little disappointed that they've chosen a different path, others will surely find that the band are just as adept at crafting a solid pop tune as they are at weaving an atmospheric soundscape. In fact, it struck us that these days they've more aligned themselves with the charming indie pop likes of Pinback and Death Cab For Cutie.
MPEG Stream: "Heart My Home"
MPEG Stream: "Low Rent Horror"

KAWABATA, MAKOTO Jellyfish Rising (Fuenfundvierzig) cd 14.98
Made in Germany it says here, and Fuenfundvierzig is a German label, if you hadn't guessed. And that's where it *sounds* like it was made, back in say 1973, by someone like Klaus Schulze. But the music on this disc -- spacey, trancey, "kosmiche" guitar bliss out stuff -- was actually made in 2004 in Japan by the next best thing to an authentic long haired and bearded '70s German krautrock guitar/electronics guru. That'd be Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple! These two long tracks of meditative, astral exploration ("mediation" and "astral" both being words that figure in the titles of the two pieces) also bring to mind the work of Terry Riley with all the wonderfully repetitive delay and reverb goin' on. Anyone into the gentler side of Kawabata/AMT (such as Kawabata's O Si Amos A Sighire A Essere Duas Umbras? and Inui 3 albums) ought to swoon over this glimmersome Jellyfish Rising. And the back cover of the cd booklet is a picture all AMT fans already have in their heads: an unclothed Kawabata in bed, smoking a cigarette, cradling his beloved electric guitar.
MPEG Stream: "Meditation Of Pelagia Panopyra Peron"

LANG, K.D. Hymns of the 49th Parallel (Nonesuch) cd 17.98
Hymns Of The 49th Parallel marks the return of k.d. lang! Golly, it seems like a whole 'nother lifetime since steadfast Canadian Stompin' Tom Connors serenaded her with his song "Lady k.d. lang"! As we recall, one of the lyrics was something like "she jumps around like a 'rang-ee-tan, lady k.d. lang!" Well, it's probably safe to say that her monkeying around days have long been packed snuggly away with her funky cat eye glasses and thrift shop garb. And yet after all these years of living in L.A. her Canadian-ness still shines through.
With the utmost respect and love, she reinterprets the songs of her fellow Canadian music luminaries Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Ron Sexsmith, Jane Siberry, and Bruce Cockburn... but somewhat disappointingly no Stompin' Tom! Despite the unquestionable powerhouse quality of her voice, her renditions are remarkably low-key, intimate and suitably unflashy with warm, bare bones arrangements (often just piano, some with strings). Two particular stand-outs are "The Valley" originally by the equally amazing in her own right Ms Jane Siberry and "Fallen" originally by the equally amazing in his own right Mr. Ron Sexsmith. That said, as with her last few albums, this definitely falls into the adult contemporary territory. So, if you happen to have an aversion to such ultra smoothness, consider yourself forewarned.
MPEG Stream: "The Valley"
MPEG Stream: "Fallen"

MAEROR TRI Myein (Waystyx) cd 14.98
Maeror Tri was a legendary German post-industrial band that forged a mighty sound of corrosive, post-Industrial dronescaping throughout the '90s before moving onto the equally impressive drone-based project Troum. Myein was one of the first CDs for Maeror Tri, originally released by ND Records and housed in an unusual, oversized triangular sleeve. Now that this has been reissued through Waystyx, Myein enjoys a slightly less cumbersome, but no less appealing matte black, die-cut sleeve with a gold envelope housing the disc. Myein opens with a black cauldron of swarming guitar drones that steadily increases the atmospheric pressures over the course of the opening track before cracking in a burst of seething noise. Maeror Tri follows this with one of their more melodic interluded, extending a melancholic descending chord progression into a haunted mantra. The final entry on Myein finds Maeror Tri at their most sprawling, amorphous, and shadowy with an undulating ocean of dark dark drones littered with flanging sounds. We can only hope that Myein is the first of many reissues from Maeror Tri's hard to find back catalogue. Excellent!
MPEG Stream: "Phlogiston"
MPEG Stream: "Desiderium"
MPEG Stream: "Myein"

MECHA FIXES CLOCKS Orbiting With Screwdrivers (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
Orbiting With Screwdrivers is comprised of seven austere soundscapes from this veteran aural experimentalist from Montreal, Quebec. Continuing on in the collaborative community spirit that has made that city's cativatingly diverse art and music so captivating, Mecha Fixes Clocks aka Michel F. Cote (we resisted the urge to concoct some clever punny statement about his moniker and time spent listing to this cd) crafted this 49 minute long album from hours upon hours of recorded material he received from over a dozen of his fellow French Canadian contributors some of which are already quite familiar to AQ such as Christof Migone and Martin Tetrault. Some tracks are so minimal, they're barely there save for a single strikes of a piano key or ghostly plucks of a stringed instrument left to linger in the air. Others offer more atmospheric 'presence' in the form of vaporous drones or high pitched prickly squeals. All of them evoke open, abandoned, unlit spaces. When played in the store, this received numerous enthusiastically curious queries. Check it out.
MPEG Stream: "Give My Regards To Time"
MPEG Stream: "Mecha's Dance"

MIRROR Viking Burial for a French Car (Plinkity Plonk) cd 19.98
It may seem like a curious title for Mirror, who are best known for simple if anthropomorphic allusions in their titles rather than something more fitting for the Icelandic absurdists Stilluppsteypa; yet one cannot forget that Mirror's Christoph Heemann began his musical career in the Nurse With Wound obsessed ensemble Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa, which translates as Moose Without A Sofa. That is not to say that Viking Burial for a French Car recalls the surrealistic meandering of HNAS, rather it sounds much like all of the other Mirror recordings -- tranquil, somber, and hypnotic dronescapes that hover like a wintery fog. With the inclusion of a few Scotsmen (David Keenan, Alex Neilson, and Gavin Laird) alongside Andrew Chalk and Heemann, the Mirror sound is altered a little bit. At first, Mirror unveils a sonorous tone of what could be a thousand car horns bleating into a canyon. This undulating mass of sound gradually gives way a post-AMM / Organum clamour of drum kit improv tumbling and textural growling, before dissolving back to the introductory funereal timbers that drift onward to oblivion.
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 01"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 02"

MONOS Generators (Die Stadt) cd 27.00
For many years now, Colin Potter and Darren Tate have produced some fine droneworks with Potter becoming a regular contributer to Nurse With Wound, and with both Potter and Tate working together first as Ora and more recently as Monos. Over the past few Monos releases, Potter and Tate have been steadily reducing their electronic tones, gestural events, and field recordings toward a bleak, monolithic minimalism. Generators, a sprawling double cd set, continues in this trend with four extended pieces, suitably titled "Sleep," "The Black Sea," "Slowly Fading," and "Generators." These stately electronic meditations parallel the narcoleptic time-shifting of Coil's Time Machines album from many moons ago in their gradual ascension and descension of compelling hums into subtle diversions from a uniform stillness. There's honestly not much to the frozen space of Generator, but it has to be said that few artists have the skills to pull something like this off with this much success.
MPEG Stream: "Generators"
MPEG Stream: "Sleep"

MOULD, BOB Body Of Song (Yep Roc) cd 16.98
Geeeeez, somebody please take the studio gizmos away from Bob Mould right now! While we certainly can't frown upon anyone gettin' all excited about trying something new, we sure can't cheer on Mr. Mould's decision to actually include those wonky effected Cher-vocals on his records. To be totally blunt, they sound downright dumb... and they sounded dumb on his last album. Even if he's using them tongue-in-cheek (which we sorta suspected with the album's second song and its title "(Shine Your) Light Love Hope" that seemed to be a silly take on those 'as seen on tv' dance compilation tracks with their parenthetical titles), they stick out like the worst sore thumb. Body Of Song arrived without much fanfare, and so when it appeared the other day it was a genuine pleasant surprise. It seems we'd somehow wiped 2002's disappointment Modulate from our memory banks. After a couple of songs though our smiles turned to winces. Those painful memories came rushing back and were joined by new ones. Ugh. Fortunately Mould has toned down his previous penchant for bland rave-y techno. The songs without the 'special effects' come across as fond familiar ol' Bob, and they definitely kept this one from joining Modulate in the dumper. Approach with caution.`
MPEG Stream: "(Shine Your) Light Love Hope"
MPEG Stream: "Beating Heart The Prize"

MULCAHY, MARK In Pursuit Of Your Happiness (Mezzotint) cd 15.98
We have recently been obsessing over the old Nickelodian show The Adventures Of Pete And Pete, with its recent reissue on DVD. Not only is it a totally amazing, completely bizarre show, cute enough for kids, but clever enough for adults, it also has a killer theme song, performed by a band called Polara, who just happen to feature a Mr. Mark Mulcahy on vocals. I knew I recognized that voice. Mulcahy also fornted the most amazing Miracle Legion, who were a bit of a college radio mainstay back in the day. Anyway, the upshot of all this is, we had sort of forgotten how great Mulcahy was, and what a totally amazing voice he possessed and then we remembered he had just released a new record so we figured we ought to check it out and we're happy to report it's absolutely fantastic. From the warm warbly organ of the title track, with Mulcahy's gorgeous vocals (along with some strange but lovely harmonies) to the simple sunny indie strum and unforgettable vocal melody of "Cookie Jar" to the Yo La Tengo-like jangle and stomp of "I Have Patience" complete with weird ELO style vocal effects and handclaps. This record never lets up. It's like a heavenly slice of nineties college rock all gussied up and given a good twentieth century going over. And with most pop records, it's all about the vocals, and Mulcahy has such a distinct and mesmerizing voice, smooth and sweet, but just a little scratchy and totaly unique, able to slip smoothy from a sweet falsetto to a warm rich croon. So good! Another record that we always seem to find ourselves returning to over and over.
MPEG Stream: "In Pursuit Of Your Happiness"
MPEG Stream: "Cookie Jar"
MPEG Stream: "I Have Patience"

OM Variations On A Theme (Holy Mountain) lp 15.98
NOW ON CLEAR VINYL! When the first pressing of vinyl sold out, Holy Mountain decided to repress on clear wax. Nice. Here's our review of the music, which remains available on cd too:
Have you been missing Sleep? No, not your forty winks, we mean the mighty stoner metal behemoth that was San Jose's Sabbath n' sweet leaf worshippers Sleep. The endlessly repetitive riffs, the swinging molasses sludge jams, the massive, mantric starscapes of drugged-out space rock drone and dirge? Yeah, we've been missing Sleep too. They broke up after their magnum opus, the one-hour/one-song album Jerusalem (aka Dopesmoker), members eventally resurfacing in The Sabians and High On Fire. And now Om, the closest thing to the Jerusalem of olde! So if High On Fire's loud and speedy Motorheaded heaviness hasn't quite been giving you that same Sleepy feeling, then here's -another- post-Sleep outfit that might just do the trick.
First get rid of the guitars ('cause this is just Sleep's rhythm section, bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius). All they really need is a drum kit, a bass guitar and about 10,000 watts of amplification. Then set the controls for the heart of the sun, and ride all the way there seemingly on a single churning, hypnotic mesmerizing riff, stretched over three long tracks. A super distorted, fuzzed out magic carpet ride into oblivion. The main difference between Sleep and Om (besides the lack of guitar) are the vocals by Al Cisneros. Lots of vocals. And not screaming or growly, we're talking clean, chanting, trance-like vocals, WAY up in the mix. Well, they do sound a bit like the singing in Sleep, just way more prominent. It may be the single thing that keeps folks from getting into Om. But the vocals definitely grow on you, and the laconic sort of slurry sing song-y delivery just further enhances Om's druggy mesmerism. Al's stiffly delivered, endless nasal incantations are in fact now being imitated by the staffers here at Aquarius in our everyday conversations. They definitely give the whole thing a definite Hawkwind / Pink Floyd vibe, which is a VERY good thing. This is most definitely not 'metal', although metalheads will probably dig it. Electric Wizard fans especially! This is relentlessly riff heavy, ultra repetitive, simple, spaced out, hippy drug rock of the highest order. Musically it almost sounds like a Lightning Bolt record played at 16rpm, that effortless bass / drum interplay slowed down to a loping lumber, a slow motion slither, a creepy crawl. Head nodding music for head bangers. A swirling, fuzzy, spacy, mesmerizing, drone rock trip! No wonder ol' Julian Cope wrote it up as a record of the month on his great Head Heritage website...
MPEG Stream: "Kapila's Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Annapurna"

PARTYLINE Girls With Glasses (Retard Disco) cd ep 8.98
Uhh, is the name of the record label telling us sumthin'? Dunno, but one thing's for sure, the hyperactive, prolific gal Allison Wolfe just can't sit still. She's got so many musical projects past and present, it's hard to keep track of 'em all -- Bratmobile, Cold Cold Hearts, Deep Lust, Da Hawney Troof, and the list goes on! Not to mention that they're usually three-piecers. Her bands have all been dead set on raisin' the indie grrrrl roof. So it comes as no surprise that her latest outing Partyline continues to stir up a raucous garage rawk racket. Musicianship and finesse be damned! Such is the case with their debut EP Girls With Glasses and its half dozen super lo-fi, rudimentary bashed out on guitar, bass and drums tunes.
MPEG Stream: "Unsafe At Any Speed"
MPEG Stream: "Nuthaus"

PERNICE BROTHERS Discover A Lovelier You (Ashmont) cd 15.98
Joe Pernice teeters frightfully close to easy listening territory on his band's latest studio album. The recent trend of finely crafted '70s soft rock revivalism (y'know, stuff influenced by the likes of Bread and Raspberries) seems to have bitten Mr. Pernice's songwriting pen. There's even some weirdly affected eighties new wave-isms ala Tears For Fears or Echo And The Bunnymen (hinted at by some past cover song choices maybe?). When you compare this to older 'classic' Pernice Brothers, the hooks just aren't as immediate and plentiful, their former boyish heartsick sentiments replaced by a more 'grown-up' air. These new songs slip easily alongside the likes of likeminded veteran breezy pop artists such as Archer Prewitt and Sam Prekop. We've yet to determine if it really makes for a lovelier Pernice Brothers though... after absolutely love-love-lovin' them album after album, this one might take some getting used to. In the meantime if you're craving some more familiar Pernice-y sights and sounds, you might wanna check out their brand new Nobody's Listening Nobody's Watching live cd/dvd combo!
MPEG Stream: "There Goes The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Saddest Quo"

SKATERS / YELLOW SWANS Humming Lattice Flowers (JYRK) cd-r 5.98
Another SUPER LIMITED cd-r from the Jyrk Collective (run by the guys in the Yellow Swans) who also just recently released the amazing (and also quite limited) Grey Daturas / Yellow Swans collaboration found elsewhere on this list. Unlike the GD / YS collaboration, this is a good old fashioned split, with each band offering up twenty minutes or so of their particular brand of skree. The Yellow Swans deliver a practically swoonsome drone, haunting and mysterious, with simple plodding percussion, occasional elctronic filigree and moody Eastern sounding guitar melodies. So nice. The Skaters take the noisier road, with a clangy clattery blown out soundscpae of distorted drones, buzzy fuzzy electronic whir and heavily affected disembodied vocalisations. Thickly layered and weirdly otherworldly.
And again, just to drive that point home, THIS IS VERY LIMITED. By the time you read this review, this cd-r will already be out of print. So if you want one act fast!
MPEG Stream: "One"

SO SO MANY WHITE WHITE TIGERS s/t (Weird Forest) picture disc 11.98
This is one of those records where we loove looove love the cover and picture disc artwork... a lot more than the recording. SSMWWT are damaged sounding. So So so distorted guitar, drums and vocals -- vocals that conjure a Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O on speedballs, or dying cats screaming for their lives as they're put through a meat grinder. (No animals were harmed in this review.)
In its wall of fuzzed-out screaming distortion, the album's 11 quick tracks are either uppers or downers -- slow hungover sludge or hyper speedy meth timing. You might not be able to deal with this. If you can deal with it, you are/were probably into Wolf Eyes, Lightning Bolt, Six Finger Satellite and the like. But just look at that pretty kitty picture disc. Mmmmm...

SUISHOU NO FUNE s/t (Japanoise) cd 21.00
BACK IN STOCK!
Housed in a nice pink cover-sleeve, this album's floating guitar psych is the work of another relatively new Japanese underground psych outfit that we first got turned on to via the PSF label's recent, excellent Tokyo Flashback 5 compilation! In our review of that comp, we described them/their track thusly: "bleak folk duo, very lovely, eventually overcome by space-out distortion". And that same assessment applies likewise to this self-titled debut disc of theirs, except that here they're a trio, with the core pairing of Pirako and Kageo (both guitar/vocals) joined by drummer Tail. 69 minutes, five tracks, delicate, dreamy and drifting. With gentle vocals and electric guitars mostly engaged in ethereal exploration (but capable, at times, of generating speaker-rattling stormclouds, when the trio get into their more slow-burning Rallizes-ish moments) this should be right up the alley of any of you into such bands as Nagisa Ni Te, Doodles, Shizuka, Overhang Party, and Up-Tight.
MPEG Stream: "Cherry"
MPEG Stream: "The Blue Bird, Betrayal And Freedom"

SUZUKITON Service - Repair Handbook (Crucial Blast) cd 14.98
For you proggy instro-metal freaks, last list we had the ultra Champsy Hematovore, this time 'round we've got Suzukiton: two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, and no singer, all hailing from a metalloid stoner robot shitkicker planet called Richmond, Virginia. Their songs are kinda complex constructions of chunky bits that make me think of, not Legos, but whatever that other, more advanced toy construction set is meant for really smart kids who'll grow up to be engineers. These guys probably played with that when they were young, but then picked up guitars and grew long hair and beards and instead of becoming engineers and making big hydroelectric dams and rocket ships and super-computers and stuff they grew up to shred metallically and mathematically (but groovily too) in Suzukitron. Heck, the square root symbol is actually used in one of their song titles. And another song is called "Chugga". I guess when you're instrumental, the best two options are song titles like that that describe the music, or song titles that just make somebody grin. Anyway Suzukiton chugs along nicely thick and sometimes speedily, and should definitely appeal to fans of the likes of the aforementioned Champs, as well as Zebulon Pike and Mastodon and some old faves from nearby to Suzukiton's neck of the woods, Breadwinner and Confessor.
It's definitely way better that these guys channelled their aggression and smarts into this rather than, say, making bombs. And keeping it instrumental means that they don't have to talk about their feelings, either.
MPEG Stream: "Rogue Mechanica"
MPEG Stream: "Aquachimp"

TRALALA s/t (Audika) cd 14.98
The bubblegum-y good times are sure hoppin' these days. Joining the pep rally already in progress by the Go! Team, are the seven-member musical bunch known as Tralala! Proving you can't judge a book by its cover, the fashion magazine-y posed photos of the band members in the cd booklet made us expect Brooklyn electro-clash or dance punk, rather than the unaffected, unabashedly youthful, energetic pop contained within. In fact, the super snappy electric guitars and girl-gang harmony vocals of this their self titled debut closely resemble those on The Rondelles' last album The Fox (a particular Cup fave)! Bound to keep the energy of early summer going strong into fall!
MPEG Stream: "All Fired Up"
MPEG Stream: "Everybody's Doin' Fine"

UNKLESOUNDS (UNKLE) Edit Music For A Film (Unklesounds) 2cd 29.00
Anyone wanna play 'Name That Film" with your ol' Unkle James Lavelle? His latest release is somewhat vaguely titled Edit Music For A Film, and a little bit more helpfully subtitled Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Reconstruction. Maybe it should more appropriately be titled Edited Music From A Bunch Of Films 'cause what it featured is snippits of music and dialogue that Lavelle has nabbed from a lengthy list of movies and pieced together atop his deep bass and breakbeat meltdowns. The first disc has one single 54-minute track named "Widescreen Edit - A New Hope", while the second one is slightly longer at 58 minutes (but is also a single track) and is called "Bonus Material Edit - Strikes Back". Some clips are so fleeting that their origins barely register with the casual listener, while others are more complete and recognizable -- such as the seemingly unadulterated Sid Vicious rendition of "My Way" and the excerpts from George Lucas' early film THX-1138. He even uses two images from the latter film for one of the inner sleeves. The inclusion of the former is a bit distracting as it rudely jolts the listener out of the grooving Unkle-zone, and makes for more of a film music compilation feel. Not for everyone, but it might make a novel gift for your movie'n'breakbeat lovin' buddy.
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

WAKEFIELD Which Side Are You On? (Jive) cd 13.98
This is the record Weezer should have made. In fact this is the record Weezer should have made instead of every record after the blue album (okay, Pinkerton was pretty good). Which Side Are You On? is criminally Weezer like, which seems less criminal when you think about how un-Weezer like the last Weezer record was. This is massive hook filled pop, HUGE guitars, quiggly synth melodies, a dangerously Rivers Cuomo like voice. But so what? Weezer stopped giving us the sort of pop we wanted, nay NEEEDED, long ago, so what's a pop kid to do? From the first few seconds of the first track, you'll know you're in good hands. Hook after hook after hook, huge catchy choruses, killer riffs. This is power pop nirvana for sure! Track three also features a really funny out of nowhere hip hop breakdown, you heard us hip hop, that materializes out of some sugary sweet chorus, and just as quickly slips back in to the same chorus. Weird. It'll have you shaking your head and thinking, "Did I really just hear that?" Makes us think these guys are pretty funny as well as being killer pop songsmiths. As long as you can forgive the bad photo under the tray, white pants all around, hair gel, bare feet. Ugh. The cover art is amazing though, a full color robot surrounded by barely visible robots and samurais printed in back gloss on a matte black background!
MPEG Stream: "Without You (Which Side Are You On?)"
MPEG Stream: "Take Off"
MPEG Stream: "C'mon Baby"

WESTERBERG, PAUL Besterberg - The Best Of Paul Westerberg (Rhino) cd 17.98
Yes, we have to admit we've found his last few releases to be sorta hit-or-miss, love/hate, however with the amusingly titled Besterberg it's nothing but love love LOVE for Mr. Westerberg. Ah, that endearingly hoarse voice, those unmistakable guitar melodies -- it's like getting together with an old friend from your college days. Diehard fans will surely already have all of the older material compiled on this cd, and will probably have their own gripes over their personal fave tunes that might not have been included. Alas, such is always the case with best ofs, innit? However, amid the plentiful twenty career-spanning songs there's an added bonus to pique the interest of Westerberg's completists -- a trio of previously unreleased songs! "All That I Had", "C'mon, C'mon, C'mon" and an alternate mix of "Once Around The Weekend".
MPEG Stream: "Dyslexic Heart"
MPEG Stream: "All That I Had"

WHITEHORSE Caverns (2005 Japanese Tour cd) cd 9.98
Record number two from Australian doom dirge juggernaut Whitehorse. And whaddaya know? It's another live record! But so what!?!? If they sound this heavy and this brutal live, why even bother going in the studio? In fact, we're sort of afraid of what might happen if these guys actually did make it into a studio. Not sure we could handle it! This is intense stuff. Massively heavy, so slow and plodding it's almost ambient, with huge stretches of near silence, while the crumbling remnants of the last riff drift earthward before the next riff comes crashing down. Shrieked inhuman screams, and plodding drum beats set at least a mile apart, moans and drifting guitars and cymbal sizzle drift like tendrils of black smoke between each Teutonic crush. Hell they even have a guy in the band credited with just "Rumblings." Fuck yeah! Think Khanate, Bunkur, Corrupted, Eyehategod. So so so good! Packaged in a beautifully printed oversized cardboard sleeve. And as always SUPER LIMITED!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Caverns"

WINGDALE COMMUNITY SINGERS s/t (Plain) cd 14.98
Wonderful! This group of community singers number just three and their names are David Grubbs (Gastr Del Sol, Bastro, Squirrelbait), Hannah Marcus and author Rick Moody. If you dig the down-homey country folk feel of Freakwater or Virginia Dare. Ms Hannah's voice is in full, sweetly lilting bloom and the fellows chime in every so often in warm welcoming fashion. Most of the songs are of the slower ballad kind such as the achingly lovely "Blue Daisy", but the trio also prove that they're not against kickin' up the dust a bit on more rollicking numbers such as "Fishnet Stockings". An ideal album for a picnic down by the creekside, or simply hangin' out on the porchswing one lazy Sunday evening.
MPEG Stream: "Blue Daisy"
MPEG Stream: "Fishnet Stockings"

WIRE, THE #258 August 2005 magazine 7.50
The Red Krayola's Mayo Thompson on the cover (snazzy photo!). Inside, also: Marissa Nadler, Ikuro Takahasi, This Heat, Pierre Schaeffer, the Musique Actuelle festival, Carla Bozulich doin' the "Invisible Jukebox", and SF's The Skaters. Plus reviews and charts and letters and ads and all the usual stuff.

WRIGHT, NIGEL s/t (CMR) cd-r 14.98
Fuck, first there was Celebrate Psi Phenemona, and then Pseudoarcana jumped into the fray, and now CMR is the latest label to start releasing super limited edition cd-r's from the New Zealand underground of improv free-noise, lo-fi drone scraping, and damaged sound art. Not to be confused with the Andrew Lloyd Webber associate of the same name, the Auckland based Nigel Wright focuses on loop-based systems which he transforms into miasmic drones. It's hard to say if those looping systems refer to feedbacking loops (which is possible as there is a cyclical sine-wave feel to many of Wright's sounds) or to a Terry Riley time-lag accumulation (which is also possible with all of the crystaline percolations that ripple through the dronescaping); regardless of the process, Wright's eponymous debut recording alternates between deadened electrical atmospherics and beautifully blissed out driftscapes. Fans of BJ Nilsen, Oren Ambarchi, and Jonathan Coleclough should take note! Limited to 100 copies only!
MPEG Stream: "01"
MPEG Stream: "13:40 (live at Canary Gallery 05/04/05)"

XASTHUR Nocturnal Poisoning (Southern Lord) lp 16.98
Finally the world is becoming more and more aware of the burgeoning West coast black metal scene (Leviathan. Draugar, Xasthur, Crebain, etc.) and thus Southern Lord has deigned to release this classic slab of fuzzed out blackness on VINYL!! Be aware this is VERY LIMITED!! Not sure how long we'll have these. Here's what we had to say about the cd:
Xasthur is a one-man, home-recorded black metal outfit delving into the distortion-washed realm of Burzumic bliss, and is a favorite of both tUMULt's black metal master Leviathan *and* the Jewelled Antler/Thuja crew, so you know it's beautifully primitive and droney stuff, with majesty undying. The music is all shades of grey, like the packaging, with strains of melody obscured in mists of mostly mid-tempo metallic mayhem a la ancients like Darkthrone and Burzum, achieving, even at speed, a trance-inducing dirge quality. It's truly "A Walk Beyond Utter Blackness" in the "Forgotten Depths Of Nowhere", as per two of the song titles. If you like cultish black metal that verges on experimental drone (or vice versa), Xasthur should please you greatly, and offers more proof (along with Weakling and the aforementioned Leviathan) that even "sunny" California can produce black metal to rival that from Nordic climes.
MPEG Stream: "Soul Abduction Ceremony"
MPEG Stream: "A Walk Beyond Utter Blackness"

XIU XIU La Foret (5RC) cd 14.98
On the new full-length from the Bay Area's Xiu Xiu, Jamie Stewart's warbly, throaty vocals inch-worm into your brain and ferment into soundscapes that are at turns grotesque and beautiful. Utilizes a variety of instruments -- including xylophones, glockenspiels, vibraphones, and acoustic guitars -- to create backdrops ranging from synth-pop to bad dream drone. La Foret makes us think of a child whispering a dirty secret and then stabbing his teddy bear. Self-consciously theatrical and unrelentingly unique. Music that makes you hold your head in your hands and question whether your pretty little world is really so pretty after all.
MPEG Stream: "Muppet Face"
MPEG Stream: "Mousey Toy"
MPEG Stream: "Bog People"

YA HO WHA 13 Penetration, An Aquarian Symphony (Swordfish) cd 17.98
Whoah, man. A seriously trippy, dark and clangorous document here from the (very literally) cult group of early '70s rockers called Ya Ho Wha 13. Of all the many albums that the legendary Father Yod and his band of freaky communal-living hippies made back in the day (most but not all of 'em compiled into the massive Aquarius-beloved 13-disc God And Hair box set that came out in Japan some years back), it's always been THIS one that we at AQ (and pretty much every other reputable source too) have heralded as the absolute heaviest and best of the bunch. An essential item for anyone into far-out freeform '70s psych weirdness. And it's got an unbeatable title, eh? Penetration, An Aquarian Symphony. How can we not dig that? So we're quite stoked that the UK's Swordfish label has reissued it on cd for those who haven't got and/or aren't ready for the box set (which may or may not still be available anyway, inquire if you're curious). The four tracks here (including one entitled simply "Ya Ho Wha 13") venture from droneing spacey effects laden soundscapes with eerie Eastern-sounding vocal wailing to full-tilt throbbing, percussive tribal lift-off frenzies complete with stabs of heavy guitar distortion. Throw in some whistling to add an off-kilter spaghetti western soundtrack vibe and you've got Penetration. A damaged, dense, intense, quasi-religious psychedelic California-krautrock experience. Even the mellowest parts are still pretty edgy. This 1974 recording is definitely to be considered a cosmic precursor to everything from the drum circle discs of the Boredoms to the improv rock of Reynols to the neo-hippy clank of the No Neck Blues Band. Amazing. Just what you need before checking out the new DVD documentary on the Ya Ho Wha family that we also just got in (to be reviewed next time around, with luck).
MPEG Stream: "Yod He Vau He"
MPEG Stream: "Journey Through An Elemental Kingdom"

----*
----* Back In Stock On Celebrate Psi Phenomenon :
----*

BROTHERS OF THE OCCULT SISTERHOOD Run From Your Honey Mind (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 14.98
We finally managed to get a handful more of these back in stock. This will most likely be your last chance. Pretty sure we won't be able to get more!!!
Definitely one of the best band names ever, this Australian group channels much of the same sonic spirituality as the No Neck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, cobbling together four lengthy tracks of transcendent free folk, avant rock clatter. Creepy and sun dappled, like a furtive glimpse past the drawn shades in the window of the old creepy house on the hill, offering up the briefest peeks into past lives, creaking doors, distant footsteps, a rusty music box, all set to mysterious otherworldly musicks, nonsensical vocals coupled with detuned guitars, tiny xylophone melodies arranged haphazardly between shuffled snare drums and woozy acoustic guitars. Druggy and drowsy and dreamy, a stumbling musical meander through free folk, modern minimalism, DIY noise, and drunken indie jangle. SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
MPEG Stream: "Our Minds Blow Like Prayers In The Wind"
MPEG Stream: "Temple Of The Sloth"

----*
----* Compilations :
----*

V/A Indiavision: Hindi Film Songs And Instrumentals (1966-1984) (Buda Musique) cd 21.00
BACK IN STOCK! This Record Of The Week from May went quick, and we've only just been able to get more...so if you missed it, here it is again:
The Western obsession with India's prolific film industry, and even more so the musical numbers that drive the narratives forward, has nearly reached its saturation point. The amount of "best of Bollywood" anthologies released to date seems to almost equal India's annual theatrical output. Which all just makes it that much harder for us when we want to tell you that Indiavision is quite assuredly the best collection of Bollywood music we've come accross. See, so much has come before that such a claim will be immediately written off as so much of the usual record reviewer hyperbole. So just hear us out. First of all, what is it that makes Indian film music so great? Well, one of the things most often cited by fans is the over-the-top arrangements on some of the better numbers. The really great film music composers like Kalyanji & Anandji and Laxmikant & Pyarelal are some of the most worldly specialists in all genres of music, integrating the talents of Ennio Morricone's Western period, entire western orchestras, regional Indian classical music, the newest in electronic developments and whatever fad happened to be big in the year which they were composing (Hawaiian slide guitar, psychedelic music, soul, funk, you name it). The greatest film scores manage to somehow meld all that together in a way that just begs for some kind of clever culinary analogy (which we will spare you from in this review).
What else makes a great Bollywood song? The vocalist(s). A good song can survive without a male vocalist; they're only needed in duets with the female lead. The female vocalists in Indian film music are the equivalent of lead guitarists in the golden age of American rock and roll, and their vocal chords have the same dynamics, presence and range as most amplified guitars. Singers like Asha Bhosle (India's shining star of singers), featured heavily on this collection (and all collections) have a way of disembodying their voices from their bodies. When Bhosle sings her voice cuts through the speakers like a scalpel. Half of this phenomenon is due to her amazing lungs, the other to the insane engineering skills of the producers who record these scores who choose to overload the microphone preamps and super-saturate the magnetic tape during the loudest passages resulting in an unholy natural compression of the signal. Second only to the likes of Lee Perry in his Black Ark period of the early seventies or dub master King Tubby, the production values of Indian film music is singularly twisted in their techniques. Like the aforementioned Jamaican demigods of the multi-track, the recordists here have an arsenal of reverb, echo and compression tools that -- while not as new as the gear used in Hollywood's recording studios -- are used to their absolute functional limit. All of those essential elements of Indian film music are represented on each and every song here. But unlike many earlier collections, which focus their range on a particular era, composer, or vocalist, Indiavision draws from a wide range of sources. The tracks included here date from as far back as 1966 on up to 1984, it includes such film score heavyweights as father S.D. and son R.D. Burman, Laxmikant & Pyarelal, Kalyanji & Anandji and Bappi Lahiri. The broad time spanned by the tracks makes this collection as a whole more varied and easy on the ears. There's also quite a good variety of both slow, sultry numbers and completely batty comical ones. Some, like the title music for "The Burning Train" (listed as an instrumental), which features gruff female vocals like those of Yma Sumac, or the "Cabaret Dance Music" from the film "Dharmatma" with its maniacal laughter are completely off the wall. Others, like "Yashomati Maiya Se Bole Nandala" -- a deadly serious romantic number with crooned vocals by Lata Mangeshkar -- and "Come Closer" -- a mellow and sincere funk/soul song sung by Salma Agha -- are beautiful respites from the cornball antics which are more often the songs of choice for Bollywood anthologies. Comes with a 30 page, full color booklet with plentiful liner notes in both French and English. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: LATA MANGESHKAR / LAXMIKANT & PYARELAL "Yashomati Maiya Se Bole Nandala"
MPEG Stream: KALYANJI & ANANDJI "Cabaret Dance Music"
MPEG Stream: SALMA AGHA / BAPPI LAHIRI "Come Closer"
MPEG Stream: R.D. BURMAN "Title Music from the film The Burning Train"

----*
----* New DVD's :
----*

BEULAH / CHARLES NORRIS A Good Band Is Easy To Kill (Further Down Films) dvd 14.98
If your favorite band is SF popsters Beulah and you're still nursing your heartbreak as a result of their breakup, here's a posthumous audio and video treat to brighten your day. This dvd features a documentary of the band on the road back in 2003 touring the U.S. and Canada in support of their final album Yoko, as well as a heap of bonus material (live footage of the band performing seventeen complete songs, deleted scenes, etc). One thing that this dvd reminded us about is that they (well, particularly lead singer Miles Kurosky) sure do swear a fuck of a fucking lot. You might wanna keep it away from the eyes and ears of grannies and children.

COUP, THE The Best Coup DVD Ever! dvd 14.98
Oakland hiphop crew The Coup -- longtime AQ faves whose 2001 Party Music album was one of the most fun and funky "political" rap records ever -- offer up a DVD of stuff from their archives. It contains seven of The Coup's music videos from over the years, along with an interview with crucial Coup members Boots Riley and Pam The Funkstress, and a fascinating documentary film co-directed by Boots, shot on tour in South Africa! Plus "hidden stuff".
This IS The Best Coup DVD Ever! It's the only Coup DVD too, of course...but though they're joking with the title it is a swell item for Coup fans or anyone who wants to learn more about their radical rap politics. (Note: the back cover seems to indicate that this material is spread over two dvds, but it's all on one.)

NOMI, KLAUS / ANDREW HORN The Nomi Song (Palm Picture) dvd 22.00
Our Ms Cup has long been a Klaus Nomi devotee, but -- save for his one song appearance in the Urgh! A Music War film and the now out-of-print Eclipsed: Best Of Klaus Nomi compilation -- there's never been enough documentation from back in the day to satiate any craving for this ultra stylized, provocative and enigmatic figure. So she was thrilled and a bit trepidatious to hear that a documentary was being made. After many failed attempts to go see the film in the theater, she was then delighted to hear that it was coming out on dvd. Her verdict? Superlatives galore. This fantastic documentary was made with absolute loving care and imaginative attention to detail. One of the most obvious (and unique) examples of this comes in the segments featuring the voice of Nomi's aunt. "Why just her voice?" you might ask. Well, apparently she's really camera shy, and the filmmakers came up with a novel way to present her likeness in the film. They crafted accurately detailed miniature dioramas of various locations (such as her living room with a mini slide projector and backyard with shrubbery and garden hose) in which they sat a paper doll with a picture of her face. The interview clips (each filmed in front of a very thought out, appropriate backdrop), audio and video footage sheds much light on his life and music career (including more background info about the abovementioned Urgh! appearance), totally capturing the vitality, tragedy and defiance of Nomi the individual as well as of the underground New York New Wave scene as a whole during those years. He cut such a striking, unmistakable, indelible silhouette. Unforgettable.
The dvd includes a bunch of exclusive remixes by Scissor Sisters' Ana Matronic, Richard Barone, The Moog Cookbook and Man Parrish (formerly of The Fast, Man2Man and more!)

THOR An-Thor-Logy dvd 22.00
Ok. This is potentially the BEST THING WE'VE EVER SEEN. Seriously.
If that isn't enough, we'll explain a little more. Jon Mikl Thor (aka THOR) is a Canadian body building champ and hunky metal cult icon from the '70s and '80s who got his start doing flashy, stunt-driven, super-human strong man performances (plus singing). These stunts include the bending of a steel bar with sheer muscle-power, then the blowing up a hot-water bottle with sheer lung-power. These became trademark moves as his metal-fantasy concerts progressed. Thor has described his high-concept shows as being based on Norse mythology where Thor (god of thunder and lightning) fights epic battles with monsters and evil warlords. We've seen him perform in person (in recent years) and it is actually kinda like that. As this DVD also proves. And on the DVD, he actually looks like "Thor" with long blonde hair and all, not someone's beefy dad, as he does now.
Thor's AN-THOR-LOGY contains mezmerizing classic performance footage from 1976 through 1985, including a special appearance on the Merv Griffin Show (!) and several rare music videos. As an old flyer states, "BODY, ROCK, SHOW, BAND". That about says it all. If I were Kathy McGinty watching this (see AQ list #213), I'd say "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugghhh!" Basically, if you do not see this, you are totally missing out. Hilarious, kitschy, rock n' roll beefcake fun.
And, we urge you to catch Thor on tour this year. He's still darn brawny, and a master of tongue-in-cheek metal/fantasy/punk entertainment. Apparently these shows will find Thor on a quest "to find the magic lantern" as he promises not to disappoint his fans. SF locals, he's playing at the 12 Galaxies on August 31st w/ Slough Feg...and just might be showing up at AQ for some sort of meet-the-fans event!!

----*
----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed :
----*

If you want to order one of these, just cut and paste the info into the comments area on the order form, or just email mailorder@aquariusrecords.org.

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED "Bestial Machinery (discography vol. 1)" (Relapse) 2cd 14.98
ASSHOLE PARADE "Say Goodbye" (No Idea) cd 10.98
BIRDS, THE "Birds Birds Birds In The World" (Important) cd 14.98
BJORKK, HENRIK NORDVARGR "Vitagen" (Essence) cd 14.98
BLUT AUS NORD "Memoria Vetusta I" (Candlelight) cd 13.98
BLUT AUS NORD "Ultima Thulee" (Candlelight) cd 13.98
BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY & MATT SWEENEY "I Gave You" (Drag City) cd ep 5.98
BORT, EDUARDO "s/t" (Fonomusic) cd 23.00
CLANDESTINE BLAZE "Deliverers Of Faith" (Northern Heritage) cd 14.98
COFFINS "Mortuary In Darkness" (Razorback) cd 14.98
CULPEPER'S ORCHARD "s/t +3" (Karma Music) cd 22.00
CULPEPER'S ORCHARD "Second Sight +6" (Karma Music) cd 22.00
DOUBLE LEOPARDS "Savage Summer Sun" (Stop It All) cd 12.98
DRAGUNS, GEORGE "Huffing Gas" ((self-released)) cd-r 9.98
EMIT "A Sword Of Death For The Prince" (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
ETERNAL ELYSIUM "Searching Low & High" (DIW Phalanx) cd 24.00
EYEHATEGOD "Preaching The "End-Time" Message" (Emetic) cd 14.98
EYES AND ARMS OF SMOKE "A Religion of Broken Bones" lp 14.98
FALL, THE "The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004" (Sanctuary) 6cd 67.00
FAY, BILL "s/t" (Eclectic Discs) cd 21.00
FAY, BILL "Time of the Last Persecution" (Eclectic Discs) cd 21.00
FEAR MY THOUGHTS "Hell Sweet Hell" (Lifeforce) cd 13.98
FORENSICS "Hogback Mountain Sessions Vol.1" (Magic Bullet) cd 8.98
FRESH MAGGOTS "s/t" (Radioactive) cd 17.98
FRUIT BATS "Spelled In Bones" (Sub Pop) cd
GINNUNGANAP "Remeindre (Latitudes)" (Southern) cd 11.98
GRUPA 220 "Slike" (Radioactive) cd 17.98
HELL, RICHARD "Spurts: The Richard Hell Story" (Rhino / Warner) cd 16.98
ICKY BOYFRIENDS "A Love Obscene" (Menlo Park) 2cd 15.98
IRON MAIDEN "The Essential Iron Maiden" (Sony) 2cd 21.00
KID 606 "Resilience" (Tigerbeat6) cd 14.98
KINSKI "Be Gentle With The Warm Turtle" (Intellectual Drunk) cd 13.98
KINSKI "SpaceLaunch For Frenchie" (Intellectual Drunk) cd 13.98
LESLIE, DESMOND "Music Of The Future" (Trunk) cd 17.98
MILK FROM CHELTENHAM "Triptych of Poisoners" (Alga Marghen) cd 17.98
NETO, JULIEN "Le Fumeur de Ciel" (Type) cd 16.98
ONDSKAPT "Dodens Evangelium" (Next Horizon) cd 14.98
PAINE, ANDREW & RICHARD YOUNGS "Mauve Dawn" (Fusetron) lp 14.98
PHOBOS "Tectonics" (Candlelight) cd 14.98
PUBLIC ENEMY "Power To The People And The Beats" (DefJam) cd 14.98
RILEY, TERRY & STEFANO SCODANIBBIO "Diamond Fiddle Language" (Wergo) cd 24.00
SHANKAR, ANANDA "And His Music" cd 24.00
SOILENT GREEN "Confrontation" (Relapse) cd 14.98
SON VOLT "Okemah And The Melody Of Riot" (Transmit Sound) dual cd/dvd 19.98
STRANGULATED BEATOFFS "Jacking Off With Jacko" (A Pop Records) 7" 6.98
TAKAHASHI, IKURO "Domoir To Sanshu" (Siwa) cd 14.98
THEE MORE SHALLOWS "More Deep Cuts" (Turn) cd 11.98
TIME FLYS, THE "Fly" (Birdman) cd 14.98
V/A "Blank Field" (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
V/A "Mush Tour 2002" (Mush) dvd 17.98
VITALIC "OK Cowboy" (PIAS) cd 17.98
VOCOKESH "Through The Smoke" (Strange Attractors) cd 13.98
WOODEN WAND "Harem Of The Sundrum & The Witness Figg" (Soft Abuse) cd 14.98
ZORN, JOHN "Masada Rock featuring Rashanim" (Tzadik) cd 16.98

_______________________________________________________________________

ABOUT MAILORDER


Please place your order via our website.

[1] We will contact you to verify your order and let you know when it will be shipped. Please note that occasionally it may take a day or two for us to reply. We are not a faceless bunch of computers replying to your order -- we are human beings!

[2] If we are out of some of your items and we think we will get them within the same week, we can wait to ship. Or... If it's going to be more than a few days to complete your order, we will ship what we have and then will contact you as the remainders arrive.

[ note ] Due to the everchanging nature of the independent record business, we are not responsible for listed price changes (due to supplier price changes) and often cannot update our site fast enough to reflect these changes, but we will always try to let you know of any differences.


DOMESTIC SHIPPING :
--------------------------------
1-2 items $4.50 USPS Priority Mail
3+ items $6.50 UPS Ground

Further Explanation (Please Read!):
Within the USA, an order of 3 or more items will be shipped via UPS ground for a flat fee of $6.50. These packages are automatically insured and trackable.

However, if your package contains just 1 or 2 items, we will ship your order via USPS Priority Mail, and charge you $4.50 for shipping. These packages are NOT insured or trackable, sorry. So if you desire those safeguards, please request UPS delivery at the $6.50 rate. You must mention this in the comments field of our online order form.

Also, please note that UPS will not ship to PO Boxes. If you only have a PO Box, we can ship packages of 3+ items via US Postal Service and charge you by weight according to their rates. Special shipping needs (e.g. UPS Next Day) are also do-able, just ask.

Another important note: box sets DON'T (usually) count as one item. Sorry. A box set will generally bump you up into the "three or more items" category. Y'know, they're big. Boxes.


INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING :
-------------------------------- For foreign customers we ship via US AIRMAIL ("Letterpost"). Your price is based on the actual cost of shipping plus $1. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package, No Correspondence" category and see the price for "Letterpost". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)


We highly recommend insurance for your international package, but it is very expensive! You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package, No Correspondence" category and see the price for "Parcel Post". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)


INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE :
-------------------------------- You are hereby forewarned that Aquarius is not responsible if your international package gets lost in the mail. Insurance is your only recourse if your records never show up. Since the terrible events of 9/11, mail service has been slow and undependable... and while we haven't experienced any *confirmed* permanently lost mail, insurance might provide some additional piece of mind in this time of upheaval. We strongly recommend it. But yes, it is very expensive. It's your choice. Again: Aquarius is not responsible for lost mail, so if you aren't willing to take a (slight but real) risk, please buy the insurance.

International insurance is very expensive! In fact often the insurance costs more than the value of your package, in which case it obviously does not make sense to insure it. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package, No Correspondence" category and see the price for "Parcel Post", which is the way insured packages are sent. 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)

For example: for a one-pound package worth $18 going to England, shipping without insurance is about $8. But with insurance, the shipping / insurance total is over $16!

It is your reponsibility to check the international rate calculator in order to determine whether or not you want international insurance. If you tell us you want international insurance, we will add it to your order no matter how much it costs!


PAYMENT :
-------------------------------- Payment is via credit card: Visa, MC, Discover, and Amex. Money orders are accepted only from customers within the USA. If you must pay by money order, you have to confirm the order with us through email or phone BEFORE you send any payment. We cannot take personal checks for mailorder, sorry!


QUESTION?
-------------------------------- Email the mailorder department: mailorder@aquariusrecords.org

______________________________________________________________________

SOME SELECTED UPCOMING RELEASES

----} August 9th or thereabouts
Sons And Daughters "Repulsion Box" cd/lp on Domino
Current 93 "How I Devoured Apocalypse Balloon" 2cd on Durtro Jnana
Moggs "The White Belt Is Not Enough" cd on Absolutely Kosher
Bottom of the Hudson "Holiday Machine" cdep on Absolutely Kosher
Melvins/Lustmord "Pigs Of The Roman Empire" 2lp vinyl edition on Alternative Tentacles
Sloan "Smeared" and "Twice Removed" cd reissues on Koch
Holopaw "Quit +/or Fight" cd on Sub Pop
Sheavy "Republic?" cd on Candlelight/Rise Above
Graves at Sea / Asunder split cd on Life Is Abuse
The Juan MacLean "Less Than Human" cd on Astralwerks
Kemialliset Ystavat "Lumottu Karkkipurkki" cd re-issue on Fonal

----} August 16th
Vibracathedral Orchestra "Tuning To The Rooster" cd on Important
Hototogisu "Ghost Of The Sun" 2cd on Important
Gang Gang Dance "Hillulah" cd on The Social Registry
Venetian Snares "Meathole" cd/2lp on Planet Mu
The Intelligence "Icky Baby" cd/lp on In The Red
Modey Lemon "The Curious City" cd/2lp on Birdman
Tony Conrad "Bryant Park Moratorium Rally (1969)" cd on Table Of The Elements
Oxes "Oxes EP" cdep/12" on Monitor
Tren Brothers "The Swimmer" cd on Western Vinyl
The Stooges "s/t" remastered cd reissue on Rhino
The Stooges "Funhouse" remastered cd reissue w/ bonus tracks on Rhino

----} August 23rd
Turbonegro "Party Animals" cd+dvd domestic release on Abacus
August Born (Hiroyuki Usui of L and Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance) "s/t" cd/lp on Drag City
Khanate "Capture & Release" cd on Hydra Head
Boris with Merzbow "Sun Baked Snow Cave" cd on Hydra Head
Rogue Wave "10:1 +3" cdep on Sub Pop
Yob "The Unreal Never Lived" cd on Metal Blade
Edison Electric Band "Bless You, Dr. Woodward" cd reissue on Water
Cluster & Eno "s/t" cd reissue on Water
Melvins "Mangled Demos From 1983" 2x10" vinyl edition on Alternative Tentacles
John Zorn "The Best Of Filmworks: 20 Years Of Soundtrack Music" cd on Tzadik
v/a "We Reach: The Music Of The Melvins" tribute cd on Fractured Transmitter w/ High on Fire, Eyehategod, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Mare, Isis, Pig Destroyer, and others
Public Enemy w/ Paris "Rebirth Of A Nation" cd on Guerilla Funk
Hospitals "I've Visited The Island Of Jocks" cd/lp on Load
Oren Ambarchi "Triste" on Southern Lord

----} August 30th
Jack Rose "Kensington Blues" cd on VHF
Alias & Ehren "Lillian" cd/2lp on Anticon
The Red Thread "Ship In The Attic, Birds In The Subway" cd on Badman

----} also in August
v/a "Dimension Mix: The Music Of Bruce Haack And Esther Nelson" cd on Eenie Meenie Records (tribute featuring Beck, Stereolab, Eels, Apples In Stereo, Danielson Famile, and others)
Ugly Things magazine issue #23

----} September 6th
M83 "s/t" cd reissue on Mute
Terry Reid "Superlungs" cd on Astralwerks
Sloan "One Chord To Another" and "Navy Blues" cd reissues on Koch

----} September 13th
Cocorosie "Noah's Ark" cd/lp on Touch and Go
The Ex "Singles. Period." cd on Touch and Go
Rosie Thomas "If Songs Could Be Held" cd on Sub Pop

----} September 20th
Painkiller "50th Birthday Celebration Volume 12" cd on Tzadik
Ni Hao! "Gorgeous" cd on Tzadik
Davka "Davka Live" cd on Tzadik
Broadcast "Tender Buttons" cd/lp on Warp
Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" cd on AceFu
USAISAMONSTER "Wohaw" cd/2lp on Load
East West Blast Test "Popular Music For Unpopular People" cd on Ipecac
Reverend Bizarre "II: Crush the Insects" cd on Season Of Mist
Twilight "s/t" lp on Southern Lord

----} October 11th
Constantines "Tournament of Hearts" cd/lp on Sub Pop
Kelley Stoltz "The Summer Of Places" cdep on Sub Pop
Dirty Three "Cinder" cd/lp on Touch and Go

----} October 25th
Rogue Wave "Descended Like Vultures" cd/lp on Sub Pop
The Dead Science "Frost Giant" cd on Absolutely Kosher
Goblin Cock "Bagged and Boarded" cd/pic disc lp on Absolutely Kosher

----} also upcoming, sooner or later
Stephin Merritt "Two Chinese Operas" 2cd
The Meads Of Asphodel "Damascus Steel" cd
Solar Anus "Skull Alcoholic" 2cd on tUMULt
John Wilkes Booze "Telescopic Eyes Glance The Future Sick" cd on Kill Rock Stars
Glenn Branca "Indeterminate Activity of Resultant..." cd on Atavistic
The Decemberists "Picaresque" 2lp on Kill Rock Stars
Sonic Youth with Brigitte Fontaine and Areski cd on SYR/Goofin
Cerberus Shoal on Young God
Oxbow "Love That's Last" cd+dvd on Hydrahead
David Kilgour "Here Come The Cars" cd reissue on Merge
David Kilgour "Sugar Mouth" cd reissue on Merge
Wooden Wand & Vanishing Voice "tba" cd on 5 Rue Christine
Bonnie Prince Billy and Tortoise "tba" cd/lp on Overcoat
Iron & Wine and Calexico "tba" cd/lp on Overcoat
The Clientele "tba" cd on Merge
Portastatic "tba" cd on Merge
Lurker of Chalice (Wrest of Leviathan) "s/t" cd/2lp on Southern Lord
Haemoth "Kontamination" cdep on Southern Lord
Earth "Hex (Or Printing in the Infernal Method)" cd/2lp on Southern Lord
SUNNO))) "Black One" cd/2lp on Southern Lord
Boris "Vein" limited lp on Important
Boris with Merzbow "I am the Walrus" 12" on Hydra Head

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

A very dumb joke (that has AQ written all over it):

A World renowned expert in the sounds of European Wasps is walking down the High St. one day when he spots an advert in his local record shop for "Wasp sounds from around the Globe".

On further enquiry he discovers that a vinyl recording of this subject has just been released and a few copies are available in store there and then.

Naturally, being a World renowned expert in the sounds of European Wasps he is curious and asks the young chap behind the counter if he can have a listen to "Wasp sounds from around the Globe".

A few seconds later the World renowned expert in the sounds of European Wasps is standing at one of those little sound stations with his headphones on and a puzzled expression on his face. He removes the Headphones, walks back to the counter and catches the young sales persons attention. "Excuse me" he says, "I'm A World renowned expert in the sounds of European Wasps and I've just been listening to "Wasp sounds from around the Globe", and I must say, there appears to be some mistake. Those are no Wasp sounds with which I am familiar".

The young man dutifully checks the recording in question and assures the World renowned expert in the sounds of European Wasps that he is indeed listening to "Wasp sounds from around the Globe".

Puzzled, the World renowned expert in the sounds of European Wasps returns to the headphones and once again begins to listen. After a few seconds he once again returns to the counter and accosts the young fellow there. ""Excuse me" he says, "As I mentioned before, I am a World renowned expert in the sounds of European Wasps and I've just been listening to "Wasp sounds from around the Globe" and I have to say again, those are no Wasp sounds with which I am familiar. Are you certain I have been listening to the correct recording?"

Slightly exasperated by now, the young man checks the disc currently playing and with a slightly sheepish grin confesses: .



"Oops, sorry Sir, I seem to have played you the Bee side"

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________


A brutal prog nerd's wet dream!!!!!

Daft Alliance Presents
In celebration of the vinyl rerelease of Upsilon Acrux's LAST TRAIN OUT.

Friday August 12th @Tixies in Oakland
Bad Dudes
Upsilon Acrux
TBA

Saturday August 13th @Edinburgh Castle
Flying Luttenbachers
Bad Dudes (So.Cal prog w/members of Upsilon Acrux)
Upsilon Acrux

Sunday August 14th @The Stork Club in Oakland
The Mass
Bad Dudes
Upsilon Acrux

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________


BROOKHAVEN
THE ANTARCRICANS
THE DRIFT (members of Tarentel & Halifax Pier)
THE LIGHTS FROM HERE
LIVING BREATHING MUSIC

performing live!

Saturday, August 20 at 9 pm

The Lobot Gallery
1800 Campbell Street, West Oakland
$5-10 sliding scale

Here's what we had to say about the most recent Brookhaven record:

This new Brookhaven album unwinds like a slow waking from a dream. Nine hazy, mesmerizing instrumental beauties. In turn Transitive Verses brings to mind four 'M's -- M83, Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine and Morricone -- but wholly without being imitative. On this, their follow-up to 2001's Everything That Rises Must Rise, they've taken their music to a whole new plane. Some elements have been retained such as their warm shimmery guitar twang and their blend of acoustic drumming and programmed beats plus some lingering shadows of post-rock-ness, while others have been set aside for the time being. For one thing, although there is a heavier synthesizer presence on this album, this is definitely less woozily spacey than their previous work, and much more composed. Whereas much of Everything Rises took a gradual meandering path that drifted in and out of focus seemingly at random, their new material seems more fully realized, with each song following a more defined arch. The results are ultra dynamic, but somehow still thoroughly gentle at the same time. Wonderful!
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________




Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Byram Jim AllanAlisonMischaand Jason